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IndictmentOnce he was seated at the kitchen table with Alison and Miss Aicheson facing him, Mrs. Telpher on his left and Eustace on his right, Tim and Julia in the background draped round the basket chair, Basil Toberman passed into a stage of ponderous arrogance.
With his face crimson and his full mouth glistening he achieved a dictator-like appearance, squat, myopic, and preternaturally solemn. The Kinnit family were bearing with him in their own peculiar way and sat smiling at him with tolerant superiority, but the rest of the company was suffering.
“The bronze is unquestion . . . unquestion . . . unquestionably genuine,” he announced, adding unnecessarily, “I have said it.”
“So we hear.” Miss Aicheson was almost as red as he was and had never appeared more masculine. “Don’t you
