Even then Sir Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would not have interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet minister consulted him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty thousand pounds' worth of consols.

He disliked the lady so strongly that after telling her how she could best compass her design, he felt that the time had come to ease the international situation.
With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping.

His conviction that the Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess became certitude when he learned from Mrs.Dangerfield that they were encamped on Deeping Knoll, and had been there since the day before that disappearance.

But he kept that certitude to himself, since it was his habit to do things in the pleasantest way possible.
He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood and park to Muttle Deeping Grange.

He gave his card to the butler and told him to take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms of friendship rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three minutes she came to him in the drawing-room.
She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said: "Is this business worrying you ?" "It is rather.