Mary Roberts Rinehart

Name: The Circular Staircase — Chapter X
Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart

The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

Summary

“The Circular Staircase — Chapter X”, published in 1908, is a work by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It explores elements such as John Bailey, Halsey and Trautman.

Quotes from The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (Mary Roberts Rinehart)

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ Gertrude rose angrily. "You are not even just!" she flamed. "You don't know anything about it, and you condemn him!"
"I know that we have all lost a great deal of money," I said. "I shall believe Mr. Bailey innocent the moment he is shown to be. You profess to know the truth, but you can not tell me! What am I to think?"
Halsey leaned over and patted my hand.
"You must take us on faith," he said. "Jack Bailey hasn't a penny that doesn't belong to him; the guilty man will be known in a day or so." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ Then there was a diatribe on the possibility of such an occurrence; on the folly of a one-man bank, and of a Board of Directors that met only to lunch together and to listen to a brief report from the cashier, and on the poor policy of a government that arranges a three or four-day examination twice a year. The mystery, it insinuated, had not been cleared by the arrest of the cashier. Before now minor officials had been used to cloak the misdeeds of men higher up. Inseparable as the words "speculation" and "peculation" have grown to be, John Bailey was not known to be in the stock market. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ I said grimly. "In the meantime, I take no one on faith. The Inneses never do."
Gertrude, who had been standing aloof at a window, turned suddenly. "But when the bonds are offered for sale, Halsey, won't the thief be detected at once?"
Halsey turned with a superior smile.
"It wouldn't be done that way," he said. "They would be taken out of the vault by some one who had access to it, and used as collateral for a loan in another bank. It would be possible to realize eighty per cent. of their face value." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ Gertrude turned pale.
"And the only man who could have cleared Jack can never do it!" she said despairingly.
"Also," I replied coldly, "Mr. Armstrong is for ever beyond the power of defending himself. When your Jack comes to me, with some two hundred thousand dollars in his hands, which is about what you have lost, I shall believe him innocent."
Halsey threw his cigarette away and turned on me.
"There you go!" he exclaimed. "If he was the thief, he could return the money, of course. If he is innocent, he probably hasn't a tenth of that amount in the world. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ In his hands! That's like a woman."
Gertrude, who had been pale and despairing during the early part of the conversation, had flushed an indignant red. She got up and drew herself to her slender height, looking down at me with the scorn of the young and positive.
"You are the only mother I ever had," she said tensely. "I have given you all I would have given my mother, had she lived—my love, my trust. And now, when I need you most, you fail me. I tell you, John Bailey is a good man, an honest man. If you say he is not, you—you—"
"Gertrude," Halsey broke in sharply. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ Isn't that the act of an innocent man?"
"Then why did he leave at all?" I asked, unconvinced. "What innocent man would run away from here at three o'clock in the morning? Doesn't it look rather as though he thought it impossible to escape?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (1908)

“ Trautman went to the loan clerk and, after certain formalities had been gone through, the loan clerk went to the vault. Mr. Trautman, who was a large and genial German, waited for a time, whistling under his breath. The loan clerk did not come back. After an interval, Mr. Trautman saw the loan clerk emerge from the vault and go to the assistant cashier: the two went hurriedly to the vault. A lapse of another ten minutes, and the assistant cashier came out and approached Mr. Trautman. He was noticeably white and trembling. Mr. ”

Mary Roberts Rinehart

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Quotes from The Circular Staircase — Chapter X (Mary Roberts Rinehart)

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