He spoke strangely, and looked odd, and altogether seemed strung up to a high pitch.
Out went Betty, seeing it was no good dawdling; for her master was resolute and formidable.

The room, like others in old-fashioned houses with thick walls, had a double door.

He shut the one with a stern slam, and then the other; and though the honest maid loitered in the hall, and, indeed, placed her ear very near the door, she was not much the wiser.
There was some imperfectly heard talk in the parlour, and cries, and sobs, and more talking.

Then before Betty was aware, the door suddenly opened, and out came Mary Matchwell, with gleaming eyes, and a pale laugh of spite and victory and threw a look, as she passed, upon the maid that frightened her, and so vanished into her coach.
Nutter disengaged himself from poor Mrs.Nutter's arms, in which he was nearly throttled, while she sobbed and shrieked-- 'Oh! Charley, dear--dearest Charley--Charley, darling--isn't it frightful ?' and so on.
'Betty, take care of her,' was all he said, and that sternly, like a man quietly desperate, but with a dismal fury in his face.
He went into the little room on the other side of the now darkening hall, and shut the door, and locked it inside.

It was partly because he did not choose to talk just now any more with his blubbering and shrieking wife.