It contained those very letters--three in number--which he had once been so anxious to see.

He tried to read them, but no effort could fix his wandering attention.

He looked aside to the opposite page, on the left hand.

It was the page that contained the leading articles.
They were three in number.

The first was on foreign politics; the second was a sarcastic commentary on a recent division in the House of Lords; the third was one of those articles on social subjects which have greatly and honorably helped to raise the reputation of the _Times_ above all contest and all rivalry.
The lines of this third article which first caught his eye comprised the opening sentence of the second paragraph, and contained these words: It appears, from the narrative which will be found in another part of our columns, that this unfortunate woman married, in the spring of the year 18--, one Mr.Fergus Duncan, of Glendarn, in the Highlands of Scotland...
The letters swam and mingled together under his eyes before he could go on to the next sentence.