Yet, now, the man was apparently preparing for some sort of interference.

What did he want?
Selwyn had contemptuously refused to permit him to seek a divorce on the ground of his wife's infirmity.

What was the man after?
* * * * * The man was after his divorce, that was what it all meant.

His first check on the long trail came with the stupefying news of Gerald's runaway marriage to the young girl he was laying his own plans to marry some day in the future, and at first the news staggered him, leaving him apparently no immediate incentive for securing his freedom.
But Ruthven instantly began to realise that what he had lost he might not have lost had he been free to shoulder aside the young fellow who had forestalled him.

The chance had passed--that particular chance.