Perhaps, as she herself had suggested, he had a wife and family already.

Neither of them knew anything at all about him.

He might be a battered old traveller, or an Anglo-Indian nabob, or a needy haunter of Continental pensions, or a convict just emerged from a term of penal servitude.

He might be as rich as Midas, or as poor as a church-mouse.

But on one thing Austin was determined--Aunt Charlotte must be saved from herself, if necessary.