"Who has put that into her head, Mrs.Woodgate ?" "The place is hemmed in by police." "Since when ?" asked Langholm, quickly.
"Only this morning." Langholm held his tongue.

So the extortioner Abel, outwitted by the amateur policeman, had gone straight to the professional force! The amateur had not suspected him of such resource.
"I don't think this has anything to do with Mrs.Steel," he said at last; "in fact, I think I know what it means, and I shall be only too glad to reassure her, if I can." But his own face was not reassuring, as Hugh Woodgate plainly told him in the first words which the vicar contributed to the discussion.
"I have been finding out things--I have not been altogether unsuccessful--but the things are rather on my mind," the author explained.

"How does Steel take the development, by the way ?" "As a joke!" cried Morna, with indignation; her husband was her echo both as to words and tone; but Langholm could only stare.
"I must see him," he exclaimed, decisively.

"By the way, once more, do you happen to know whether Mrs.Steel got a letter from me this morning, Mrs.Woodgate ?" "Yes, she did," answered Morna at once.

Her manner declared her to be not unacquainted with the contents of the letter, and Langholm treated the declaration as though spoken.
"And is she not going to see that poor fellow ?" he asked.
"At once," said Morna, "and I am going with her.