He noted, as a curious circumstance, that throughout the report there
was no reference to the absence of Mrs. Leroux; therefore--a primitive
reasoner--he assumed that she was back again at Palace Mansions. He
was mentally incapable of fitting Mrs. Leroux into the secret machine
engineered by Mr. King through the visible agency of Ho-Pin. On the
whole, he was disposed to believe that her several absences--ostensibly
on visits to Paris--had nothing to do with the catacombs of Ho-Pin, but
were to be traced to the amours of the radiant Gianapolis. Taking into
consideration his reception by the Chinaman in the cave of the golden
dragon, he determined, to his own satisfaction, that this had been
dictated by prudence, and by Mr. Gianapolis. In short he believed that
the untimely murder of Mrs. Vernon had threatened to direct attention to
the commercial enterprise of the Greek, and that he, Soames, had become
incorporated in the latter in this accidental fashion. He believed
himself to have been employed in a private intrigue during the time
that he was at Palace Mansions, and counted it a freak of fate that Mr.
Gianapolis' affairs of the pocket had intruded upon his affairs of the
heart.
It was all very confusing, and entirely beyond Soames' mental capacity
to unravel.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185