"I'm going to read it," murmured Monsieur Delarue.
"Don't lose a second—for the love of God!" cried Dorothy.
He took a second pair of glasses from his pocket and put them on over the first, and read:
"'Written this day, the 12th of July, 1721 ...'"
"Two centuries!" gasped the notary and began again:
"'Written this day, the 12th of July, 1721, the last day of my existence, to be read the 12th of July, 1921, the first day of my resurrection.'"
The notary stopped short. The young people looked at one another with an air of stupefaction.
Archibald Webster, of Philadelphia, observed:
"This gentleman was mad."
"The word resurrection is perhaps used in a symbolic sense," said Maître Delarue. "We shall learn from what follows: I will continue: