Explore "The Barrister's Story, being the Decision of Sir Edward Shoreham" by H.C. McNeile on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"THIS morning," he began, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs, "I mislaid my cigarette-case. I knew it was somewhere in the study, but find it I could not. Finally, having searched all over my writing table, I rang the bell, and somewhat irritably demanded its immediate production. The butler stepped forward and lifted it up from the centre of the blotting pad, where it had been the whole time, literally under my nose. What peculiar temporary kink in the brain had prevented my noticing the very thing I was looking for, when it was lying in the most conspicuous place in which it could possibly have been, I don't know. I leave that to the Doctor. But the point of my parable is this-it decided in my mind the story with which I should bore you fellows to-night."
He paused to light a cigar, then he glanced round at the faces of the other five.