It was very desirable that this
inquiry should be made without delay. For it was no part of the duty
of the gate officers to make any written note of such a
circumstance; and it would entirely depend on their recollection to
say whether such or such a person had passed the gate. At the same
time, that such a person as this Paolina Foscarelli should pass out
of the city at such an hour in the morning, was sufficiently out of
the ordinary course of things to make it very unlikely that it
should not be remembered by the officials.
As the lawyer pursued his way towards the gate in deep thought he
was comforted as to the complexion of his client's case by the
consideration of his own state of mind. He found it impossible to
come to any definitive conclusion as to the balance of the
probabilities. At one moment his mind swung back to his original
conviction that the Marchese Ludovico had yielded to the temptation
of making himself safe from the destitution that awaited him if his
uncle's purpose were carried out. The persuasion that it was so
seemed to come like a flash of light upon him. Then, again, thinking
of all the stories of what women have done under the influence of a
maddening jealousy, he reverted to the superior probability of the
other hypothesis.
Arrived at the gate the lawyer's success was greater than he had
ventured to anticipate.
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