A vague terror grew upon him as he hurried along.

Justice seemed following on his track.

He had found the door on the latch: if anything was missing, how should he explain the presence of his hat without his own?
The devil of the brandy he had drunk was gone out of him, and only the gray ashes of its evil fire were left in his sick brain, but it had helped first to kindle another fire, which was now beginning to glow unsuspected--that of a fever whose fuel had been slowly gathering for some time.
He opened the door with his pass-key, and hurried up the stair, his long legs taking three steps at a time.

Never before had he felt as if he were fleeing to a refuge when going home to his wife.
He opened the door of the sitting-room--and there on the floor lay Letty and little Tom, as I have already told.
"Why have I heard nothing of this before ?" said Mary.
"I am not aware of any right you have to know what happens in this house." "Not from you, of course, Miss Yolland--perhaps not from Mrs.Redmain; but the servants talk of most things, and I have not heard a word--" "How could you," interrupted Sepia, "when you were not in the house ?--And, so long as nothing was missed, the thing was of no consequence," she added.

"Now it is different." This confused Mary a little.