Chained; as nobody wasn't to go in, nor yet nobody wasn't to come out!' The man as he said this wore that air of dignity which is always imparted by the possession of great tidings the truth of which will certainly not be doubted.
The tidings were great.

The very thing which his father had suggested, and which he had declared to be impossible, was being done.

The old banker himself would not, he thought, have dared to propose and carry out such a project.

The whole Bolton family had conspired together to keep his wife from him, and had allured her away by the false promise of a friendly visit! He knew, too, that the law was on his side; but he knew also that he might find it very difficult to make use of the law.
If the world of Cambridge chose to think that Hester was not his wife, the world of Cambridge would probably support the Boltons by their opinion.

But if she, if his Hester, were true to him, and she certainly would be true to him--and if she were as courageous as he believed her to be,--then, as he thought, no house in Chesterton would be able to hold her.
He stood for a moment turning in his mind what he had better do.