"I've just had bad news, Connie, so I came to find you." She started violently, her hand dropped from her companion's arm, and she stood trembling from head to foot like a blade of grass that is shaken by a high wind.

"What do you mean?
What is it ?" she demanded.
After lifting his hat to Brady he had not noticed him again, and now he bent upon his wife a look of gentle, if unyielding, authority.

"I'll tell you presently--in the carriage," he said, drawing her wrap more closely about her throat.

"I have one waiting at the corner." He saw her look at him in a frightened hesitation; saw, too, that even in the quiver of her alarm she had taken in the unflattering details of his appearance--his ordinary business overcoat, the blue silk muffler about his neck, and even the bespattered condition of his rubber shoes.
For an instant she glanced uncertainly at Brady's immaculate evening dress showing beneath his open fur-lined overcoat, and knowing her as he did, Adams read her appreciation of the contrast as plainly as if it had been written in her face.
But he was not moved by the knowledge of her criticism, nor did it shake him in the least from that penetrating vision he had attained.

The instinct for battle was alive and quick within him--if Connie was to be saved he knew that he must fight single-handed with the powers of evil for her soul.