So the man was in custody, and there was other evidence.

Good! There was no saying what a woman's conscience might be capable of, even against her friends and herself.
When Mr.Boyce at last left him free to dress and make his preparations for the early train, by which the night before, after the ladies' departure for the ball, he had suddenly made up his mind to leave Mellor, it was some time before Wharton could rouse himself to action.
The situation absorbed him.

Miss Boyce's friend was now in imminent danger of his neck, and Miss Boyce's thoughts must be of necessity concentrated upon his plight and that of his family.

He foresaw the passion, the _saeva indignatio_, that she must ultimately throw--the general situation being what it was--into the struggle for Hurd's life.
Whatever the evidence might be, he would be to her either victim or champion--and Westall, of course, merely the Holofernes of the piece.
How would Raeburn take it?
Ah, well! the situation must develop.

It occurred to him, however, that he would catch an earlier train to Widrington than the one he had fixed on, and have half an hour's talk with a solicitor who was a good friend of his before going on to Birmingham.