I watched him, fascinated, studying his face carefully; and the thing that struck me was that there was nothing in it--nothing, that is to say, to lay hold on.

It was simply nondescript, so almightily commonplace that that very fact made it rather remarkable.
Wake was speaking of the revelations of the Sukhomhnov trial in Russia, which showed that Germany had not been responsible for the war.

He was jolly good at the job, and put as clear an argument as a first-class lawyer.

I had been sweating away at the subject and had all the ordinary case at my fingers' ends, so when I got a chance of speaking I gave them a long harangue, with some good quotations I had cribbed out of the _Vossische Zeitung_, which Letchford lent me.

I felt it was up to me to be extra violent, for I wanted to establish my character with Wake, seeing that he was a friend of Mary and Mary would know that I was playing the game.