Then who could this American be, and why should he possess so much influence over her?
It might be a lover; it might be a husband.

Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in rough scenes and under strange conditions.

So far I had got before I ever heard Lord St.Simon's narrative.

When he told us of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance means taking possession of that which another person has a prior claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear.

She had gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "And how in the world did you find them ?" "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held information in his hands the value of which he did not himself know.