It was the kind of threat that an angry man would be pretty sure to make in the circumstances.
Having dismissed Elizabeth Twitcher, he came to lunch with the impression strong on him that he had made as much progress as could be expected in one morning towards the solution of the problem.

He was quite undecided whether Hutchings' presence in the Castle at so late an hour, and the probability that he had entered and left it by the library window, or the matter of the woman who had had the stormy interview with the murdered man, was the more important.

It must be his early task to discover who that woman was.
He found Mr.Manley awaiting him in the little dining-room, ready to play host.

Over their soup and fish they talked about ordinary topics and a little about themselves.

Mr.Manley learned that Mr.Flexen had been in the Indian Police for over seven years, and had been forced to resign his post by the breaking down of his health; that during the war he had twice acted as Chief Constable and three times as stipendiary magistrate in different districts.