A. E. W. Mason

“ She was thanking him not so much for the stout confidence of his words, as for the comfort which the touch of him gave to her.
"Very likely I am making too much of little things," she went on. "Very likely I am ungenerous, too, to Monsieur Hanaud. But he lives amidst crimes and criminals. He must be so used to seeing people condemned and passing out of sight into blackness and horrors, that one more or less, whether innocent or guilty, going that way, wouldn't seem to matter very much."
"Yes, Betty, I think that is a little unjust," Jim Frobisher remarked gently. ”

“ Jim was sorely tempted to break his word. He had only to tell the real cause which had fetched Hanaud out of Paris and Betty's distress was gone. But he could not. Every tradition of his life strove to keep him silent. He dared not even tell her that this charge against her was only an excuse. She must live in anxiety for a little while longer. ”

“ Hanaud put back in its place the book which he had been holding in his hand.
"One can easily see that this is the library of Simon Harlowe, the collector," he said. "I have always thought that if one only had the time to study and compare the books which a man buys and reads, one would more surely get the truth of him than in any other way. But alas! one never has the time." He turned towards Jim Frobisher regretfully, "Come and stand with me, Monsieur Frobisher. For even a glance at the backs of them tells one something."
Jim took his place by Hanaud's side. ”