Had anything been needed to
strengthen his determination on the threshold of a meeting with Joan's
destroyer, it was the startling vision of Joan herself from which he had
just departed. No event had brought the magnitude of his loss more cruelly
to the core of his heart than the sudden splendid representation of what he
had left behind him in her innocence and beauty; and, for the same reason,
nothing could have more thoroughly fortified his mind to the deed now lying
in his immediate future.
Noy's first act was to turn again to the gallery with a purpose to inquire
where John Barron might be found; but he recollected that many picture
catalogues contained the private addresses of the exhibitors, and
accordingly consulted the list he had brought with him. There he found the
name and also the house in which the owner of it dwelt--
JOHN BARRON, No. 6 Melbury Gardens, S. W.
Only hours now separated him from his goal, and it seemed strange to Noy
that he should have thus come in sight of it so suddenly. But his wits
cooled and with steady system he followed the path long marked out. He
stood and looked in at a gunsmith's window for ten minutes, then moved
forward to another. At the shop-fronts of cutlers he also dawdled, but
finally returned to the first establishment which had attracted him,
entered, and, for the sum of two pounds, purchased a small, five-chambered
revolver with a box of cartridges.
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