"I've been dipping into him."

"I'm afraid he's scarcely a question of the hour," said Mr. Locket,
shuffling papers together.

"I think I could make him one," Peter Baron declared.

Mr. Locket stared again; he was unable to repress an unattenuated
"You?"

"I have some new material," said the young man, colouring a little.
"That often freshens up an old story."

"It buries it sometimes. It's often only another tombstone."

"That depends upon what it is. However," Peter added, "the documents
I speak of would be a crushing monument."

Mr. Locket, hesitating, shot another glance under his glasses. "Do
you allude to--a--revelations?"

"Very curious ones."

Mr. Locket, still on his feet, had kept his body at the bowing angle;
it was therefore easy for him after an instant to bend a little
further and to sink into his chair with a movement of his hand toward
the seat Baron had occupied. Baron resumed possession of this
convenience, and the conversation took a fresh start on a basis which
such an extension of privilege could render but little less