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His speculation was interrupted "Does no one recognize me?" the man asked Gisrowl that quivered in the air like the howl of a bear

Yet despite its roughness, it was unentle the vowels Now there truly was dead silence in the chamber

From the corner of his eye Gisht between the exercise of his authority and a shock so profound that he--like everyone in the room--simply waited for whatever would conto the Lord Chancellor, "I quite thought I would be recognized"

His lordship"Impossible!"

"Entirely possible," the intruder replied He see himself "The arms of heaven have not yet pulled me into their embrace, you see"

A wave of excited babble followed this observation Gismond craned his neck to look at the countess, tucked into the gallery It occurred to him that the lost duke--if it was indeed he--didn’t realize that the peeresses were in attendance; he hadn’t looked in their direction But Gislimpse of her face, white as parchment

Then Mr Pinkler-Ryburn cah the ure, Mr Pinkler-Ryburn had an odd dignity of his own

"I do not recognize you, sir," he said His voice was cautious and respectful, the sort of address one ’s English, a wish to eat you

"We never knew each other very well," the man replied

"If you are indeed the duke, your voice has altered beyond recognition"

"Having your throat cut tends to do that" The asp in the room, as everyone saw the wicked scar that ran across his brown throat as neatly as a cravat

Gismond had the impulse to clutch his own neck, but luckily he remembered the pristine beauty of his starched neck cloth in ti the last seven years?" Mr Pinkler-Ryburn inquired

"Spending my tiht and squared his shoulders "Then, if you would be so good as to answer a question, sir By what name was I ridiculed in school, a name which you never yourself used?"

For the first tie face "Pink," the man said "They bloody well called you Pink"

If there were any in the room who believed that Pink secretly wished to be duke, they knew at that , for he threw his ar-lost brother

It was such a ht that not everyone on the dais noticed immediately that Lady Islay--now the Duchess of Ashbrook--had fallen into a dead faint and toppled into her neighbor