Pendril entered it.
They bowed to each other with a formal politeness, which betrayed on
either side an uneasy sense of restraint. Mr. Pendril was one of the
many men who appear superficially to the worst advantage, under the
influence of strong mental agitation which it is necessary for them to
control. Miss Garth, on her side, had not forgotten the ungraciously
guarded terms in which the lawyer had replied to her letter; and the
natural anxiety which she had felt on the subject of the interview was
not relieved by any favorable opinion of the man who sought it. As
they confronted each other in the silence of the summer's morning--both
dressed in black; Miss Garth's hard features, gaunt and haggard with
grief; the lawyer's cold, colorless face, void of all marked expression,
suggestive of a business embarrassment and of nothing more--it would
have been hard to find two persons less attractive externally to any
ordinary sympathies than the two who had now met together, the one to
tell, the other to hear, the secrets of the dead.
"I am sincerely sorry, Miss Garth, to intrude on you at such a time as
this. But circumstances, as I have already explained, leave me no other
choice.
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