- As the Baudelaires soon find out, law books are not much fun to read—Justice Strauss is surprised that the kids would even want to try to get through the huge dusty volumes. Even she doesn't like reading them… and she works in the law.
- She also mentions how excited she is for the big performance on Friday. Apparently, Justice Strauss always dreamed of acting on stage.
- Violet is disappointed by this revelation, writing Justice Strauss off as stage-struck and no help.
- The Baudelaires don't have much luck finding any information that might help them figure out what Count Olaf is up to, so Violet wanders outside to take a break.
- A moment later, the man with hooks for hands comes into the library and sees Klaus reading books on inheritance law. Now why would a crummy orphan want to read something like that?
- The man tells Klaus that Count Olaf is only keeping them around until he can get his hands on their enormous fortune; once Count Olaf has that, things are not going to be pretty for the Baudelaires.
- When the hook-handed man heads outside to get Violet and Sunny—Count Olaf wants them home immediately—Klaus takes desperate action, grabbing a random law book and tucking it into his shirt to smuggle back home.
- Maybe, just maybe, this book will have the crucial information they need. Fingers crossed.