Die I Will Not Read Online Free PDF

out an indignant puff of smoke. “So shining a representative of the English bar would hardly do anything so shabby.”
    Bob rose to dig through a pile of newspapers discarded in one corner. “The letters are published in The Free Albion , did you say? Here’s one.” He scanned the columns. Lips thinning in disapproval, he quoted, “ To suffer the dignity of rank as a veil for depravity is to mock every sacred principle of our honor .” He lowered the paper. “Ugh, why do you read such stuff, sir?”
    â€œI don’t know. It passes the time?” Buckler sent a whimsical glance across the room toward his ever-unreliable long-case clock. His relationship with time—in other words, his inability to master the productive use of it—was an old joke among them.
    Bob ignored him. “Collatinus was a Roman, Mr. Thorogood? Why would Mrs. Wolfe’s father choose this particular name?”
    Thorogood leaned forward, a pedantic fervor kindling in his eyes. “Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Roman patriot who married Lucretia. When Collatinus was away, Sextus Tarquinius, the king’s son, broke in one night to ravish her. He told her that if she didn’t give herself to him, he would swear she’d committed adultery with a slave.”
    â€œWhat happened to her?” inquired the clerk in ready sympathy.
    Buckler affected a groan. “Do not encourage him, Bob.”
    â€œLivy says she plunged a dagger into her heart to cleanse her shame, but that was not the end of it. While the king was away fighting a campaign, Collatinus and Brutus, the king’s nephew, raised a mob and locked the gates of Rome against its rulers. They established a republic, and Brutus and Collatinus became joint consuls. A triumph for the people.”
    â€œYou’ve forgotten the end of the tale,” said Buckler. “Sandford’s choice of name seems rather ill-omened when one remembers that Collatinus was soon ejected from his consulship. The people didn’t care for the royal blood in his veins, and even Brutus didn’t remain loyal to him. Collatinus became an exile, rather like Sandford, strangely enough.”
    Thorogood looked grim. “With an indignity suffered by a lady at the root of it all. What if this N.D. was wronged and Sandford sought to avenge her honor?”
    â€œPossible, I suppose. In any case, if the author of these new letters realizes Mrs. Wolfe is Sandford’s daughter, she may be at risk.”
    â€œWhat motive can Collatinus have?”
    â€œIt may be political, or he may intend blackmail.” Buckler drained his glass and set it among the other dirty cups on the table. He felt a pleasant languor he hoped would take him into a restful sleep untroubled by dreams of Penelope Wolfe. “A touch too much rum this time, Thorogood.”
    â€œNonsense. The punch was perfect.”
    As Thorogood prepared to depart, wrapping himself in his fur-lined cloak and muffler, Buckler said, his voice low, “I want to help her, Zeke. Mrs. Wolfe should not face this business on her own, and he is not the sort to care for anyone but himself.”
    Thorogood had no need to ask who “he” was. “We will do all in our power, of course. Buckler, be careful.”
    â€œDo you suppose N.D. was her father’s mistress? It must make Mrs. Wolfe unhappy to suspect her father of infidelity, whatever else he got up to while he was in London.”
    â€œYes, she is awkwardly placed, and I suspect history repeats itself in her own marriage.” Thorogood plucked his white hat from the stand and faced his friend squarely. “But I was cautioning you , as you are well aware.”
    A frigid gust of wind hit Buckler as he turned away to open the door. “That bastard Wolfe does not appreciate his good fortune,” he said.

Chapter IV
    â€œA word with you,” said Fred Gander. John Chase, sitting at his usual table in the Brown