On the whole, I came to the conclusion as I walked thoughtfully home that I had improved my position by the incident.
But this danger--this shadowy, unspeakable danger--which appeared to rise up at every turn, and to hang day and night over the towers of Cloomber! Rack my brain as I would, I could not conjure up any solution to the problem which was not puerile and inadequate.
One fact struck me as being significant.

Both the father and the son had assured me, independently of each other, that if I were told what the peril was, I would hardly realise its significance.

How strange and bizarre must the fear be which can scarcely be expressed in intelligible language! I held up my hand in the darkness before I turned to sleep that night, and I swore that no power of man or devil should ever weaken my love for the woman whose pure heart I had had the good fortune to win..