More out of idle curiosity than anything else, or perhaps again
prompted by the guardian angel of Leroy's honour, she waited to see him
come out again. In a few minutes he re-emerged, bearing in his hand a
small roll of papers, one of which he was reading, with a malicious
smile on his face.
Jessica unwittingly stood in his path, and he crashed into her with such
force as to knock his hat to the ground. With an oath he struggled to
regain it, pushing her roughly aside.
"Out of my way, girl," he exclaimed, thinking she was about to beg from
him. "I have nothing for you."
At the sound of his voice Jessica's face whitened, and she turned away,
frightened, and trembling; as she did so, her foot struck against
something light lying on the kerb. She stooped and found it was a small
roll of papers, part of those which had been in the gentleman's hand,
and which he had been studying so attentively.
She did not trouble to open it, but slipped it into the bosom of her
dress and walked dreamily away.
CHAPTER XVI
"Is it a Rubens, or is it not? That is the question," drawled Frank
Parselle, as he dropped his eyeglass.
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