They undoubtedly were the paid agents of some person or persons interested in preventing the marriage of Lady Hermione Grandison.

They undoubtedly received letters and wireless messages which seem to implicate others, far removed from them in social position, in the plot, or undertaking, that her ladyship's marriage should not take place.

As a lawyer, Mr.Schmidt, you will see that I cannot possibly enter into full details, but I think I have said sufficient to prove my main contention, which is, you will remember, that it will be difficult, very difficult, to dissociate the two incidents--I mean the marriage and the murder." During quite an appreciable time there was no sound in the spacious apartment other than the heavy breathing of Count Ladislas Vassilan.
He had openly and candidly abandoned all pretense.

He was now nothing more nor less than a burly, well-fed, well-dressed evil-doer quaking with fear.
"Difficult, you say, Mr.Steingall ?" repeated the lawyer, selecting, as was his way, the word which supplied the key to a whole sentence.
"Very difficult," corrected the detective.
"But not impossible ?" "I would not care to hazard a reasoned opinion, but it seems to me that, in certain conditions, the District Attorney might elect to confine the inquiry to its main issues, which are, of course, the causes of the crime, and the conviction of the persons actually engaged in it." "Why did you want to bring Jean de Courtois here ?" "Because he is the connecting link between the one set of circumstances and the other." "Is he coming, do you think ?" Steingall looked at the clock, and showed a disappointment which he did not try to conceal.
"I fear not," he said.

"I told Clancy only to try and persuade him to come.