He did not speak again until he was half way through
his gruel. Then he said:
"And you know absolutely nothing of Marr's past history?"
"No; nothing."
"I gather from all you have told me that it would be worthy of study. If
I knew it I might understand the startling change from the aspect of evil
to the aspect of good at death. I believe the man must have been far less
evil than you thought him, for dead faces express something that was
always latent, if not known, in the departed natures. Ignorantly, you
possibly attributed to Marr a nature far more horrible than he ever
really possessed."
But Julian answered:
"I feel absolutely convinced that at the time I knew him he was one of
the greatest rips, one of the most merciless men in London. I never felt
about any man as I did about him! And he impressed others in the same
way."
"I wish I had seen him," Doctor Levillier said.
An idea, suggested by Julian's last remark, suddenly struck him.
"He conveyed a strong impression of evil, you say?"
"Yes."
"How? In what way, exactly?"
Julian hesitated.
"It's difficult to say," he answered. "Awfully difficult to put such a
thing into words. He interested me. I felt that he had a great power of
intellect, or of will, or something.
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