The letter had been brought in to him at the breakfast table.

"Read it, read it," said Mrs.Lovell, seeing him put it by; and he had read it with her eyes on him.
The man seemed to him a man of claws, who clutched like a demon.

Would nothing quiet him?
Edward thought of bribes for the sake of peace; but a second glance at the letter assured his sagacious mind that bribes were powerless in this man's case; neither bribes nor sticks were of service.
Departure from Fairly would avail as little: the tenacious devil would follow him to London; and what was worse, as a hound from Dahlia's family he was now on the right scent, and appeared to know that he was.
How was a scandal to be avoided?
By leaving Fairly instantly for any place on earth, he could not avoid leaving the man behind; and if the man saw Mrs.Lovell again, her instincts as a woman of her class were not to be trusted.

As likely as not she would side with the ruffian; that is, she would think he had been wronged--perhaps think that he ought to have been met.

There is the democratic virus secret in every woman; it was predominant in Mrs.Lovell, according to Edward's observation of the lady.