Читать книгу The Millbank Case: A Maine Mystery of To-day онлайн

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“You refer, of course, to the Wing murder.”

“I refer, of course, to the Wing murder.”

“I regret Mr. Wing’s tragic death,” said the lawyer coldly; “and especially deplore the commission of such a crime. At the same time, I don’t think it as important as Millbank naturally thinks it, and I imagine the State will manage to wag along in spite of the great loss it has sustained.”

It was not so much the words, ill-timed and out-of-taste as they were, as the air with which they were uttered, that constituted their significance. It was as if in the mind that originated them there was a lurking bitterness, that the speaker would willingly conceal, which yet was so intense that it must find vent. There was a cruel hardness in the tone that made the words themselves all but meaningless. Was it possible, Trafford asked himself, that the man was able to read the meaning of Judge Parlin’s story and knew that Wing was his half-brother? He dismissed the question with the asking, satisfied that something of which he was still ignorant was at the foundation of this outbreak. It was to be a question of the comparative shrewdness of the two men, whether he still remained ignorant when the interview closed.