He had been watching her fingers since they sat down in the summer-house, and his sharp eyes saw that they were as steady as the spire of the cathedral above the trees--he knew from that that she was neither frightened nor anxious.
"Oh, well--seventeen to twenty years ago," he answered.

"About that time.

There were passages, I say, and they were of a nature which suggests that the re-appearance of Braden on Ransford's present stage of life would be, extremely unpleasant and unwelcome to Ransford." "Vague!" murmured Mary.

"Extremely vague!" "But quite enough," retorted Bryce, "to give the police the suggestion of motive.

I tell you the police know quite enough to know that Braden was, of all men in the world, the last man Ransford desired to see cross his path again.