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Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915

"Fenton's Quest"

He paid his hotel-bill, and removed to
lodgings in one of the narrow streets to the north-east of Tottenham
Court Road; an obscure lodging enough, where he had a couple of
comfortable rooms on the first floor, and where his going out and coming
in attracted little notice. Here, as at the hotel, he chose to assume the
name of Norton instead of his legitimate cognomen.


CHAPTER XIX.
GILBERT ASKS A QUESTION.

Gilbert Fenton called at John Saltram's chambers within a day or two of
his return from Hampshire. He had a strange, almost feverish eagerness to
see his old friend again; a sense of having wronged him for that one
brief moment of thought in which the possibility of his guilt had flashed
across his mind; and with this feeling there was mingled a suspicion that
John Saltram had not acted quite fairly to him; that he had kept back
knowledge which must have come to him as an intimate ally of Sir David
Forster.
He found Mr. Saltram at home in the familiar untidy room, with the old
chaos of books and papers about him. He looked tired and ill, and rose to
greet his visitor with a weary air, as if nothing in the world possessed
much interest for him now-a-days.
"Why, John, you are as pallid as a ghost!" Gilbert exclaimed, grasping
the hand extended to him, and thinking of that one moment in which he had
fancied he was never to touch that hand again.


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