"I heard nothing; but I saw," said the aged man, closing his eyes,
as if to shut out the vision which was forced back upon his
imagination; and fumbling nervously with his beads, while his pale
blue lips trembled with mutterings of mechanically repeated
ejaculations.
"Take your time, padre mio," said the lawyer gently, making a
gesture with his raised band, at the same time, to repress the less
patient eagerness of the Commissary of Police; "we do not want to
hurry you. Tell us what it was that you saw."
CHAPTER XII
The Case against Paolina
The old friar opened his haggard eyes, which gleamed out with a
feverish light from the bottom of their sockets, and from under the
shadow of his cowl, and looked piteously up into the lawyer's face.
"A little time--a moment to collect my thoughts," he said, passing
his parched tongue over the still dryer parchment-like skin of his
drawn lips, and painfully swaying his cowled head from one side of
the hard pillow to the other, while large drops of perspiration
gathered on his brow.
The Commissary shot a meaning glance across the pallet on which the
old man lay, to the lawyer, in evident anticipation of the
importance of the revelation, heralded by so much of painful
emotion.
"By all means, padre mio; collect your thoughts. We are sorry for
the necessity which obliges us to force your mind back on such
painful ones," said the lawyer, laying his hand on that of the
friar, which was still fumbling with the shining bog-wood beads,
scarcely more yellow than the claw-like fingers which held them.
Pages:
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560