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Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith), 1863-1935

"The Middle of Things"

"I've a most important engagement in
half an hour, and it won't be put off. But I can give you ten minutes."
"I am deeply obliged to your lordship," answered Mr. Pawle. "As your
lordship will have seen from my card, I am one of the partners in Crawle,
Pawle and Rattenbury--a firm not at all unknown, I think. Allow me to
introduce my friend Mr. Viner, a gentlemen who is deeply concerned and
interested in the matter I want to mention to your lordship."
Lord Ellingham responded politely to Viner's bow and drew two
chairs forward.
"Sit down, Mr. Pawle; sit down, Mr. Viner," he said. He dropped into a
chair near a desk which stood in the centre of the room and looked
interrogatively at his elder visitor. "Have you some business to discuss,
Mr. Pawle?" he asked.
"Some business, my lord, which, I confess at once, is of extraordinary
nature," answered the old lawyer. "I will go straight to it. Your
lordship has doubtless read in the newspapers of the murder of a man
named Ashton in Lonsdale Passage, in the Bayswater district?"
Lord Ellingham glanced at a pile of newspapers which lay on a
side-table.


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