Nobody knows who he was, where he came from, why he came.
And it's being hinted--I'm only telling you what I've gathered--that Dr.Ransford knows more than he's ever told.

There are, I'm afraid, grounds." "What grounds ?" demanded Mary.

While Bryce had been speaking, in his usual slow, careful fashion, she had been reflecting--and remembering Ransford's evident agitation at the time of the Paradise affair--and his relief when the inquest was over--and his sending her with flowers to the dead man's grave and she began to experience a sense of uneasiness and even of fear.

"What grounds can there be ?" she added.

"Dr.Ransford didn't know that man--had never seen him!" "That's not certain," replied Bryce.