If only the man could be proved innocent of crime, then he might go to his sweet, innocent wife, and clasping her in his arms, take her to his heart.
The idea seemed to haunt him--it seemed to have a fatal attraction for him.

He resolved to go to London at once and see if anything could be done in the matter.

How he prayed and longed and hoped! He passed through well-nigh every stage of feeling--from the bright rapture of hope to the lowest depths of despair.

He went first to Scotland Yard, and had a long interview with the detective who had given evidence against Henry Dornham.

The detective's idea was that he was emphatically "a bad lot." He smiled benignly when Lord Arleigh suggested that possibly the man was innocent, remarking that it was very kind of the gentleman to think so; for his own part he did not see a shadow of a chance of it.
"He was caught, you see, with her grace's jewels in his pocket, and gold and silver plate ready packed by his side--that did not look much like innocence." "No, certainly not," Lord Arleigh admitted; "but then there have been cases in which circumstances looked even worse against an innocent man." "Yes"-- the detective admitted it, seeing that for some reason or other his lordship had a great desire to make the man out innocent.
"He will have a task," the detective told himself, grimly.
To the inquiry as to whether the man had been sent out of England the answer was "No; he is at Chatham." To Chatham Lord Arleigh resolved to go.