‘I thought to find your son Mr Coutts here. I’ve been waiting for him nigh on six hours. When he came, he wouldn’t tell me the truth, wouldn’t wait to speak to me, and I am determined that he shall—not only speak to me this night, but speak true. I thought I heard him hollering to me from that window. I didn’t want to make a row if it could be helped, so I got a ladder and came in, meaning to ask him to do things straight and quiet. That’s all.’ As Coutts’s room was above the library, Mr Hadleigh comprehended the mistake Caleb had made, and was satisfied that no intention of robbery had brought him there. His own intense preoccupation had prevented him from observing any disturbance. ‘What is it you wish him to speak truth about?’ he inquired. ‘I’d rather speak to himself,’ was the gloomy response. ‘You are aware that breaking into the house in this way might be an awkward thing for you if brought before a magistrate. But since the matter is important enough to induce you to run the risk you have done to-night, you had better take me into your confidence. I have no doubt of being able to assist you.’ ‘Well, then,’ said Caleb, after another minute of hesitation, and the blood tingling in his honest cheeks on her account, ‘I want to know what he has done with Pansy Culver.’ ‘What can he have to do with the girl?’ ‘More than I care to think—more, maybe, than you would care to learn. He has wiled her away from home and won’t tell me where she is.’ ‘There must be some stupid mistake here, Kersey. Mr Coutts Hadleigh is too careful of his reputation to perpetrate such a monstrous act. On what grounds do you accuse him?’ Bluntly and speaking with less difficulty now that the ice was broken, Caleb gave his reasons for believing Coutts guilty—what he had observed at their chance meetings, and particularly her rejection of himself after she had led him to think that she favoured him. Mr Hadleigh allowed him to tell his story to the end without interruption. He could see that the man was blinded by jealousy and rage, was unconsciously exaggerating trifles, and distorting them into proofs of his foregone conclusion. ‘It is fortunate that accident has made me the first hearer of this accusation,’ he said calmly, when Caleb stopped. ‘I had little doubt from the first that you were labouring under a delusion: I am now convinced of it. I will undertake to convince you of it in the morning, if you will be advised and remain quiet to-night.’ ‘I won’t wait till morning—I’ll have it out of him now. Where is he?’ ‘Stay where you are, sir!’ said Mr Hadleigh authoritatively, as Caleb made a movement towards the door. ‘If you have no care for yourself, you must have some for the girl. A brawl between you and my son on her account would disgrace her for ever.’ Caleb halted as if his feet were suddenly clamped to the floor. For the first time, he saw the danger with which his impetuous conduct threatened the being he wished to save.