Mr. Liddell went with feeble rapidity across to where a large newspaper
lay upon the floor, and resting one hand on the writing-table, stooped
painfully to raise it.
"There! read--read the price-list to me. I am blind and helpless, for
that jade has hid my glasses. I know she has. I cannot find them
anywhere, and I _must_ know how Turkish bonds are going. Read to me.
I'll hear what you have to say after." He thrust the paper into her
hand, and sat down in the high-backed chair.
Poor Katherine felt almost dazed. She took a seat at the other side of
the table, and began to look for the mysterious list. The geography of
the mighty _Times_ was unknown to her, and even in her mother's humbler
penny paper the City article was a portion she never glanced at. While
she turned the wide pages, painfully bewildered, the old man "glowered"
at her.
"I don't think you know what you are looking for," he cried,
impatiently.
"I do not indeed! If you will show it to me----"
He snatched it from her, and pointed out the part he wished to hear.
"Read from the beginning," he said.
Katherine obeyed, her courage returning as she found herself thus
strangely installed within the fortress she feared to attack. She
stumbled occasionally, and was sharply set upon her feet, in the matter
of figures, by her eager hearer.
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