I Forbid the Banns! — page 392: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

382 ‘7 FORBID THE BANNS!” smiled and looked more knowing than ever. ‘The secrets of the profession could not be divulged, he said. ‘The machinery which he had at his command was so sensitive that it wds liable to be dislocated unless treated with the greatest delicacy. Mr. Charlton might rest assured that his best interests were considered by a maintenance of secrecy. Mr. Charlton said he could not see why he should not be made acquainted with whatever clew was in the hands of Messrs. Renard & Lupus. He trusted, at any rate, that there would be no expense spared in the search. At this point Mr. Lupus brightened up and assured his client that. no expense would be spared. He was perfectly sincere in making this assurance. Whatever means of discovery were spared by Messrs. Renard & Lupus, expense was not among them. The next day Julian had a visit from one of Messrs. Renard & Lupus’ men. He was certainly the most stupid looking man Julian had ever seen; but he reflected that this appearance of dullness could not but be to the advan- tage of any man in his profession, as it tended to deceive people with whom he came in contact, leading them to fancy that he was excessively stupid instead of being what Julian believed to be just the opposite—an officer in the employment of the most noted private inquiry bureau in London. Could it be possible that this man was trying to look knowing after the manner of his chief, Charlton wondered. The smile and confidential wink of the man certainly sug- gested that thiswas hisaim. He signally failed in impress- ing Charlton with his knowingness. A more foolish looking fellow he had never seen. The profound depth of his stupidity was shown in his effort to impress Julian that he was knowing. He put some apparently silly questions to Mr. Charlton, GEoOmicgdooksnco