His keen economic instinct and his deep study of economic movements told him that a serious financial crisis, continent-wide, was inevitable and imminent.

It only needed a successful labour war to give the final touch that would bring the whole industrial fabric tumbling into ruin.

The desire for immediate revenge upon the man toward whom he had come to cherish an implacable hatred would not suffer him to await the onset of a nation-wide industrial crisis.

He fancied that he saw the opportunity for striking an immediate blow here in Blackwater.
He steadily thwarted Maitland's attempts to get into touch with him, whether at the works or in his own home, where Maitland had become a frequent visitor.

He was able only partially to allay his mother's anxiety and her suspicion that all was not well with him.