"Thank God, Signor Marchese, the news I bring is good. Thank God, I
am able to express to you my conscientious opinion that the Marchese
Ludovico had no more to do with the murder of this unfortunate woman
than I had. And such is now the general opinion throughout the
city."
"Is there anything new? Has any--any--discovery been made?" said the
Marchese, and his teeth chattered in his head as he spoke.
"Nothing that I can quite call a discovery," returned the lawyer;
"but small circumstances in such a case as this, when carefully put
together, form a clue, which rarely fails, when one has enough of
them, to lead up to the desired truth."
"Ah!--small circumstances, as you say--yes--but circumstances--eh?--
do they not often--must we not be very careful--eh?" and the
Marchese shook as he spoke, till the lawyer really began to think
that he must be labouring under an attack of the same illness that
had seized on father Fabiano.
"Fortunately, Signor Marchese, the circumstances all point, in the
present instance, in the direction we would wish. That is," added
the lawyer, hastily, "God forbid that I should wish such a crime to
be brought home to any human being, but in the interests of truth
and justice; and of course our first object is that the Marchese
Ludovico should be cleared."
"Of course, of course.
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