And Bryce, who was one of those men who firmly believe that no man ever does anything for nothing and that self-interest is the mainspring of Life, asked himself over and over again the question which agitated the ladies of the Close: Who are these two, and what is the bond between them and this sort of fairy-godfather-guardian?
And now, as he put away the scrap of paper in a safely-locked desk, Bryce asked himself another question: Had the events of that morning anything to do with the mystery which hung around Dr.Ransford's wards?
If it had, then all the more reason why he should solve it.

For Bryce had made up his mind that, by hook or by crook, he would marry Mary Bewery, and he was only too eager to lay hands on anything that would help him to achieve that ambition.

If he could only get Ransford into his power--if he could get Mary Bewery herself into his power--well and good.

Once he had got her, he would be good enough to her--in his way.
Having nothing to do, Bryce went out after a while and strolled round to the Wrychester Club--an exclusive institution, the members of which were drawn from the leisured, the professional, the clerical, and the military circles of the old city.

And there, as he expected, he found small groups discussing the morning's tragedy, and he joined one of them, in which was Sackville Bonham, his presumptive rival, who was busily telling three or four other young men what his stepfather, Mr.
Folliot, had to say about the event.
"My stepfather says--and I tell you he saw the man," said Sackville, who was noted in Wrychester circles as a loquacious and forward youth; "he says that whatever happened must have happened as soon as ever the old chap got up into that clerestory gallery.