She felt sure, before Mr.Strafford arrived, that he would tell her she was right; that Christian--even by the very act which had put him out of the ranks of ordinary men, out of the place, low and degraded as it was, which he had filled among his own people--had recovered a claim upon her, and that she must not fail to give him in his need what succour might be possible.

She was right, and Lucia heard with dismay that their secret was about to be betrayed to the very person from whom most of all it had hitherto been kept.
Nothing, however, was to be done rashly.

Mr.Strafford arrived late in the evening, and next day he proposed to go to the jail to see Christian, which he knew there would be no difficulty in doing, and to bring back to Mrs.Costello such an account as would enable her to judge how far her interference might or might not be useful.

There was still a chance that it might be useless, and to that hope Lucia clung with a pertinacity which added to her mother's anxieties.
In the three days which had now passed since the murder, the minds even of those most nearly concerned had had time to rally a little from the first shock, and to begin to be conscious of the world around them going on just as usual in spite of all.

Doctor Morton had been to a singular degree without relatives.