Don't you see, Steingall, I am in a deuce of a fix?
I married the lady under a misapprehension.

She might have really preferred this fellow, de Courtois." Steingall liked a joke as well as any man in New York, and was not at all averse from chaffing some of his less gifted colleagues when their obtuseness or faithful adherence to the letter of instructions permitted a criminal to befool them; but he resented the levity of Curtis's tone now, though, deep in his heart, he felt that he liked the man.
"You don't seem to realize the peculiarly awkward position in which you stand," he said, with due official gravity.
"On the contrary, I feel it acutely.

What am I to say to my wife---- ?" "I am not wrung with agony over the lady's sensitiveness," broke in the detective dryly.

"A good many people believe that you were concerned in this murder.

There are not lacking circumstantial details which warrant that view.