I, too, had forgotten that cryptic screed. 🔊 I found it fallen on the floor, and handed it to him. 🔊
He smoothed it out, nodding and smiling at me disagreeably. 🔊
"I found myself glancing through Nupton's book," he resumed. 🔊 "Not very easy reading. Some sort of phonetic spelling. All the modern books I saw were phonetic." 🔊
"Then I don't want to hear any more, Soames, please." 🔊
"The proper names seemed all to be spelt in the old way. 🔊 But for that I mightn't have noticed my own name." 🔊
"Your own name? Really? Soames, I'm very glad." 🔊
"No!" 🔊
"I thought I should find you waiting here to-night, so I took the trouble to copy out the passage. Read it." 🔊
I snatched the paper. 🔊 Soames's handwriting was characteristically dim. 🔊 It and the noisome spelling and my excitement made me all the slower to grasp what T. K. Nupton was driving at. 🔊