The idea did indeed cross his mind that some iniquity in that money-getting may have been responsible for a belated revenge, but he dismissed that thought as too wide for the scope of his inquiry.

Abroad! That was a vague word, and thirty years was a long while back.
As he contemplated the manifold perplexities of the case, Barrant tried to shut out the more sinister inference of the letter by asking himself, if after all, the postscript was not capable of some entirely innocent interpretation.

But his conscientious mind refused to permit him to evade responsibility in that way.

The letter could not be dismissed with a wave of one's wishing wand.

It remained stubbornly in Barrant's perspective, an unexplained factor which could be neither overlooked nor ignored.
These thoughts ran through his mind as Mr.Brimsdown talked of his dead client.