Read "The Closed Book" by William le Queux online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
There was a long and painful pause.
"Eight years ago I was living with my wife and Judith at the Villa Carracci, in the Val d'Ema, close to Florence, and first met the hunchback Graniani, or Fra Francesco, as he was then called, for he was then a monk at the Certosa Monastery at Galuzzo," said Lord Glenelg in a hard, strained voice. "He came to beg alms of me; our conversation ran upon books and ancient manuscripts, and I found, to my surprise, that he was very well versed in the study of palaeography. Discovering that I was a collector, he invited me to the monastery one day, and there exhibited the treasures of the library, including a very remarkable manuscript of Arnoldus. Away at Sienna there lived an English friend of this hunchback, named Selby, of whom he often spoke. One afternoon, when visiting the Certosa, I was introduced to this man, and found him to be a person whose past history was somewhat shady, and who was living in Sienna in strict privacy.