The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [161]
Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de The Secrets of a Princess Modeste Mignon Jealousies of a Country Town The Muse of the Department Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Letters of Two Brides Another Study of Woman The Member for Arcis
Maufrigneuse, Georges de The Secrets of a Princess Beatrix The Member for Arcis
Maufrigneuse, Berthe de Beatrix The Member for Arcis
Michu, Francois Jealousies of a Country Town The Member for Arcis
Michu, Madame Francois The Member for Arcis
Murat, Joachim, Prince The Vendetta Colonel Chabert Domestic Peace The Country Doctor
Navarreins, Duc de A Bachelor's Establishment Colonel Chabert The Muse of the Department The Thirteen Jealousies of a Country Town The Peasantry Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Country Parson The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess Cousin Betty
Peyrade Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Rapp The Vendetta
Rastignac, Eugene de Father Goriot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Ball at Sceaux The Commission in Lunacy A Study of Woman Another Study of Woman The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve The Firm of Nucingen Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis The Unconscious Humorists
Regnier, Claude-Antoine A Second Home
Simeuse, Admiral de Beatrix Jealousies of a Country Town
Steingel The Peasantry
Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de The Chouans The Thirteen Letters of Two Brides Gaudissart II.
Vandenesse, Comte Felix de The Lily of the Valley Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Cesar Birotteau Letters of Two Brides A Start in Life The Marriage Settlement The Secrets of a Princess Another Study of Woman A Daughter of Eve
Varlet The Gondreville Mystery The Member for Arcis
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TRENT'S LAST CASE
by E.C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley
-I- | -II- | -III- | -IV- | -V- | -VI- | -VII- | -VIII- | -IX- | -X- | -XI- | -XII- | -XIII- | -XIV- | -XV- | -XVI-
CHAPTER I: Bad News
Between what matters and what seems to matter, how should the world we know judge wisely?
When the scheming, indomitable brain of Sigsbee Manderson was scattered by a shot from an unknown hand, that world lost nothing worth a single tear; it gained something memorable in a harsh reminder of the vanity of such wealth as this dead man had piled up--without making one loyal friend to mourn him, without doing an act that could help his memory to the least honour. But when the news of his end came, it seemed to those living in the great vortices of business as if the earth too shuddered under a blow.
In all the lurid commercial history of his country there had been no figure that had so imposed itself upon the mind of the trading world. He had a niche apart in its temples. Financial giants, strong to direct and augment the forces of capital, and taking an approved toll in millions for their labour, had existed before; but in the case of Manderson there had been this singularity, that a pale halo of piratical romance, a thing especially dear to the hearts of his countrymen, had remained incongruously about his head through the years when he stood in every eye as the unquestioned guardian of stability, the stamper-out of manipulated crises, the foe of the raiding chieftains that infest the borders of Wall Street.
The fortune left by his grandfather, who had been one of those chieftains on the smaller scale of his day, had descended to him with accretion through his father, who during a long life had quietly continued to lend money and never had margined a stock. Manderson, who had at no time known what it was to be without large sums to his hand, should have been altogether of that newer American plutocracy which is steadied by the tradition and habit of great wealth. But it was not so. While his nurture and education