Then he returned slowly to his writing-table, and rummaged there among the papers with which it was encumbered, seeking something of which he now had need.

Through the open window he heard the retreating beat of her horse's hoofs.

He sighed and sat down heavily, to take his long square chin in his hand and stare before him at the sunlight on the lawn outside.
And whilst he sat thus, Ruth made all haste back to Lupton House to tell of the failure that had attended her.

There was nothing left her now but to embark upon the forlorn hope of following Richard to Taunton, to offer her evidence of how the incriminating letter had come to be locked in the drawer in which the constable had discovered it.

Diana met her with a face as white as her own and infinitely more startled.