"But, I rather guessed, at the end, that Bryce wanted me to keep quiet about it, only old Harker said there was no need." Ransford made no comment on this, and Dick, having exhausted his stock of news, presently went off to bed.
"Master Bryce," observed Ransford, after a period of silence, "is playing a game! What it is, I don't know--but I'm certain of it.

Well, we shall see! You've been much upset by all this," he went on, after another pause, "and the knowledge that you have has distressed me beyond measure! But just have a little--a very little--more patience, and things will be cleared--I can't tell all that's in my mind, even to you." Mary, who had been sewing while Ransford, as was customary with him in an evening, read the Times to her, looked down at her work.
"I shouldn't care, if only these rumours in the town--about you--could be crushed!" she said.

"It's so cruel, so vile, that such things--" Ransford snapped his fingers.
"I don't care that about the rumours!" he answered, contemptuously.
"They'll be crushed out just as suddenly as they arose--and then, perhaps, I'll let certain folk in Wrychester know what I think of them.
And as regards the suspicion against me, I know already that the only people in the town for whose opinion I care fully accept what I said before the Coroner.

As to the others, let them talk! If the thing comes to a head before its due time--" "You make me think that you know more--much more!--than you've ever told me!" interrupted Mary.
"So I do!" he replied.

"And you'll see in the end why I've kept silence.
Of course, if people who don't know as much will interfere--" He was interrupted there by the ringing of the front door bell, at the sound of which he and Mary looked at each other.
"Who can that be ?" said Mary.