Moreover, the scheme had been very close to Linforth's heart, even as it was to Luffe's.

But Linforth's wife was in England, and thus, as it seemed to him, neither aid nor impediment.

But in that he was wrong.

She had been the mainspring of Linforth's energy, and so much was evident in the letter which Luffe read slowly to the end.
"Yes, Linforth's dead," said he, with a momentary discouragement.

"There are many whom we could more easily have spared.