I want to see him--important, but not immediate." And I went
away, having left the impression that I would make no further effort.
Incredible though it may seem, especially to those who know how careful I
am to guard every point and to see in every friend a possible foe, I still
did not suspect that smooth, that profound scoundrel. I do not use these
epithets with heat. I flatter myself I am a connoisseur of finesse and can
look even at my own affairs with judicial impartiality. And Langdon was,
and is now, such a past master of finesse that he compels the admiration
even of his victims. He's like one of those fabled Damascus blades. When
he takes a leg off, the victim forgets to suffer in his amazement at the
cleanness of the wound, in his incredulity that the leg is no longer
part of him. "Langdon," said I to myself, "is a sly dog. No doubt he's
busy about some woman, and has covered his tracks." Yet I ought, in the
circumstances, instantly to have suspected that I was the person he was
dodging.
I went up to his house. You, no doubt, have often seen and often admired
its beautiful facade, so simple that it hides its own magnificence from
all but experienced eyes, so perfect in its proportions that it hides the
vastness of the palace of which it is the face.
Pages:
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85