Explore "The Amethyst Cross" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It was indeed Maud Ellis who entered on the arm of Mr. Hale. She was carefully dressed and, as usual, had made the best of her looks, such as they were. But she appeared to be anxious -- to be strung up to fighting-pitch -- after the manner of a woman who anticipated that she was not going to get her own way without a battle. On her entrance, she measured the lean lawyer with the eye of an antagonist, and then sat down in the chair which he politely pushed forward. As to Walter Hale, he looked much the same as he always did, cool, polished, and composed. Of course, he was perfectly arrayed in Bond Street taste, and his manners were as irreproachable as was his costume. If Miss Ellis was nervous, Hale assuredly was not. To Jabez, he suggested a bowie-knife -- an odd comparison, but one which came unexpectedly into the lawyer's unimaginative brain.
"You know, of course, Mr. Jabez," said Hale when seated, "what I have come to see you about."