He had appraised his relatives almost at a glance, and was sufficiently broad-minded to allow for the natural distress of a respectable middle-aged lady who had been whirled, as it were, out of her wonted environment, and rapt into the realms of necromancy and Arabian Nights.
Steingall swept aside this intermission with the emphatic hand of a cross-examining lawyer.
"You say it was 'of vital importance that the lady should be married to-night.' What does that imply ?" "Do you wish me to put it in different language ?" "I want to know what the vitally important reason was.

I presume she furnished one ?" "Ah, but how does that concern the New York police, Mr.Steingall ?" "Every element in this business concerns us.

The license was in Hunter's possession--was he bringing it to someone named de Courtois?
Or was he masquerading under an alias ?" "Answering your second question, I imagine not.

I have the best of reasons for believing that Jean de Courtois exists.

I wish now I hadn't.