After remaining with her long enough to
relate the few trivial events of his ride, Mr. Carling descended
to his study to occupy himself at last with the volume of the
_Times_.
It lay on his table in the shape of a large flat brown paper
package. On proceeding to undo the covering, he observed that it
had been very carelessly tied up. The strings were crooked and
loosely knotted, and the direction bearing his name and address,
instead of being in the middle of the paper, was awkwardly folded
over at the edge of the volume. However, his business was with
the inside of the parcel; so he tossed away the covering and the
string, and began at once to hunt through the volume for the
particular number of the paper which he wished first to consult.
He soon found it, with the report of the speeches delivered by
the members of the deputation, and the answer returned by the
minister. After reading through the report, and putting a mark in
the place where it occurred, he turned to the next day's number
of the paper, to see what further hints on the subject the
letters addressed to the editor might happen to contain.
To his inexpressible vexation and amazement, he found that one
number of the paper was missing.
He bent the two sides of the volume back, looked closely between
the leaves, and saw immediately that the missing number had been
cut out.
Pages:
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395