Might I suggest with all deference that we should dine together very quietly?
I know a very suitable place.

It's early for dinner, but, to tell the truth, I have had no particular appetite, to-day; in fact, have hardly touched food." Gammon accepted this invitation and decided to send a telegram to the china shop.
Their conference--tentative on both sides for the first half hour--led eventually to a frank disclosure of all that was in their minds with regard to Lord Polperro.

Each possessed of knowledge that made him formidable to the other, should their attitude be one of mutual hostility, they agreed, in Greenacre's phrase, to "pool" all information and then see how they stood.

Herein Gammon had the advantage; he learnt much more than it was in his power to communicate, for, whilst Greenacre had been playing a deliberate game, the man of commerce had become possessed of secrets only by chance, which his friend naturally could not believe.
Greenacre had been to Ireland on the track of a woman whom Lord Polperro had lost sight of for some five-and-twenty years; he had obtained satisfactory evidence that this woman was dead--a matter of some moment, seeing that, if still alive, she would have been his lordship's wife.

The date of her death was seven years and a few months ago.
"By jorrocks!" cried the listener at this point, greatly disturbed.
"Then Mrs.Clover--as we call her--wasn't really his wife at all ?" "I regret to say that she was not," replied Greenacre with proper solemnity.