Alaric had been arrested.

Alaric, their own Gertrude's own husband, their son-in-law and brother-in-law, the proud, the high, the successful, the towering man of the world, Alaric had been arrested, and was to be tried for embezzling the money of his ward.
These fatal tidings were brought to Hampton by Harry Norman himself; how they were received we must now endeavour to tell.
But that it would be tedious we might describe the amazement with which that news was received at the Weights and Measures.

Though the great men at the Weights were jealous of Alaric, they were not the less proud of him.

They had watched him rise with a certain amount of displeasure, and yet they had no inconsiderable gratification in boasting that two of the Magi, the two working Magi of the Civil Service, had been produced by their own establishment.

When therefore tidings reached them that Tudor had been summoned in a friendly way to Bow Street, that he had there passed a whole morning, and that the inquiry had ended in his temporary suspension from his official duties, and in his having to provide two bailsmen, each for L1,000, as security that he would on a certain day be forthcoming to stand his trial at the Old Bailey for defrauding his ward--when, I say, these tidings were carried from room to room at the Weights and Measures, the feelings of surprise were equalled by those of shame and disappointment.
No one knew who brought this news to the Weights and Measures.