He had gathered that piece of news from an evening newspaper in the restaurant where he had dined.

Mr.Brimsdown had reached an age when the most poignant events of human life seem little more than trifles.

It was in the nature of things for men to die.

As a lawyer he had prepared many last wills and testaments--had helped men into their graves, as it were--unmoved.

But that unexpected announcement of Robert Turold's death had come to him as an over-whelming shock.