Why do they not go
forward along straight lines like a sane man? I years ago gave up
understanding you and now I am being compelled to give up
understanding Margaret."
* * * * *
At Mrs. Ormsby's reception McGregor appeared arrayed in the black suit
he had purchased for his mother's funeral. His flaming red hair and
rude countenance arrested the attention of all. About him on all sides
crackled talk and laughter. As Margaret had been alarmed and ill at
ease in the crowded court room where a fight for life went on, so he
among these people who went about uttering little broken sentences and
laughing foolishly at nothing, felt depressed and uncertain. In the
midst of the company he occupied much the same position as a new and
ferocious animal safely caught and now on caged exhibition. They
thought it clever of Mrs. Ormsby to have him and he was, in not quite
the accepted sense, the lion of the evening. The rumour that he would
be there had induced more than one woman to cut other engagements and
come to where she could take the hand of and talk with this hero of
the newspapers, and the men shaking his hand, looked at him sharply
and wondered what power and what cunning lay in him.
In the newspapers after the murder trial a cry had sprung up about the
person of McGregor.
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