American fiction; Detective and mystery stories, American; Narrative poetry, American
So while Jane Fisher pondered on her duty,
But didn't write the letter to the lawyer,
Who had the charge of Elenor Murray's letters,
The lawyer, Henry Baker, in New York
Finds great perplexity. Sometimes a case
Walks in a lawyer's office, makes his future,
Or wrecks his health, or brings him face to face
With some one rising from the mass of things,
Faces and circumstance, that ends his life.
So Henry Baker took such chances, taking
The custody of these letters.
James Rex Hunter
Is partner of this Baker, sees at last
Merival and tells him how it was
With Baker at the last; he died because
Of Elenor Murray's letters, Hunter told
The coroner at the Waldorf. Dramatized
His talk with Lawyer Baker in these words:--
HENRY BAKER, AT NEW YORK
One partner may consult another--James,
Here is a matter you must help me with,
It's coming to a head.
Well, to be plain,
And to begin at the beginning first,
I knew a woman up on Sixty-third,
Have known her since I got her a divorce,
Married, divorced, before--last night we quarreled,
I must do something, hear me and advise.
She is a woman notable for eyes
Bright for their oblong lights in them; they seem
Like crockery vases, rookwood, where the light
Shows spectrally almost in squares and circles.
Her skin is fair, nose hooked, of amorous flesh,
A feaster and a liver, thinks and plans
Of money, how to get it. And this husband
Whom she divorced last summer went away,
And left her to get on as best she could.
All legal matters settled, we went driving--
This story can be skipped.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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