me, “habitually to pursue a definite train of thought, and to pursue it to a finish, instead of flitting indolently from one uncompleted topic to another, as the newspaper reader is so apt to do. Still, there is no harm in a daily paper—so long as you don’t read it.”
Accordingly, he patronized a morning paper, and his method of dealing with it was characteristic. The paper was laid on the table after 杭州桑拿体验记 breakfast, together with a blue pencil and a pair of office shears. A preliminary glance through the sheets enabled him to mark with the pencil those paragraphs that were to be read, and these were presently cut out and looked through, after which they were either thrown away or set
aside to be pasted in 杭州桑拿按摩电话 an indexed book.
The whole proceeding occupied, on an average, a quarter of an hour.
On the morning of which I am now speaking he was thus engaged. The pencil had done its work, and the snick of the shears announced the final stage. Presently he paused with a newly-excised cutting between his fingers, and, after glancing at it for a moment, he handed it to me.
“Another art robbery,” he remarked. “Mysterious affairs, these—as to motive, I mean. You can’t melt down a picture or an ivory carving, and you can’t put them on the market 杭州百花坊官网 as they stand. The very qualities that give them their value make them totally unnegotiable.”
“Yet I suppose,” said I, “the really inveterate collector—the pottery or stamp maniac, for instance—will buy these contraband goods even though he dare not show them.”
“Probably. No doubt the cupiditas 杭州品茶吧 habendi, the mere desire to possess, is the motive force rather than any intelligent purpose—”
The discussion was at this point interrupted by a knock at the door, and a moment later my colleague admitted two gentlemen. One of these I recognized as a Mr. Marchmont, a solicitor, for whom we had occasionally acted; the other was a stranger—a typical Hebrew of the blonde type—good-looking, faultlessly dressed, carrying a bandbox, and obviously in a state of the most extreme agitation.
“Good-morning to you, gentlemen,” said Mr. Marchmont, 杭州洗浴按摩全套是什么shaking hands cordially. “I have brought a client of mine to see you, and when I tell you that his name is Solomon Löwe, it will be unnecessary for me to say what our business is.”
“Oddly enough,” replied Thorndyke, “we were, at the very moment when you knocked, discussing the bearings of his case.”
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“It is a horrible affair!” burst in Mr. Löwe. “I am distracted! I am ruined! I am in despair!”
He banged the bandbox down on the table, and flinging himself into a chair, buried his face in his hands.
“Come, come,” 杭州下沙不正规足浴店 remonstrated Marchmont, “we must be brave, we must be composed. Tell Dr. Thorndyke your story, and let us hear what he thinks of it.”
He leaned back in his chair, and looked at his client with that air of patient fortitude that comes to us all so easily when we contemplate the misfortunes of other people.杭州西湖夜网
“You must help us, sir,” exclaimed Löwe, starting up again—”you must, indeed, or I shall go mad. But I shall tell you what ha