But the old man would not come down to see his visitor, nor would he send any message.

Then Caldigate declared his purpose of going at once to the mayor and demanding assistance from the police.

He at any rate would return with the carriage as early as he could after his visit to the magistrates' office.

He went to the mayor, and inflicted much trouble on that excellent officer, who, however, at last, with the assistance of his clerk,--and of Robert Bolton, whom he saw on the sly,--came to the decision that his own authority would not suffice for the breaking open of a man's house in order that his married daughter should be taken by violence from his custody.

'No doubt,' he said; 'no doubt,' when Caldigate pleaded that Mr.Bolton's daughter was, at any rate for the present, his own wife; and that a man's right to have his wife is undoubted.