No one knew where he had
made his money. He might well have made it in Australia; they might have
known each other out there. Langholm suddenly remembered the Australian
swagman whom he had seen "knocking down his check" at a wayside inn
within a few miles of Normanthorpe, and Steel's gratuitously explicit
statement that neither he nor his wife had ever been in Australia in
their lives. There was one lie at least, then why not two? Yet, the
proven lie might have been told by Steel simply to anticipate and allay
any possible suspicion of his wife's identity. That was at least
conceivable. And this time Langholm sought the conceivable explanation
more sedulously than the suspicious circumstance.
He had been far too precipitate in all that he had done hitherto, from
the Monday morning up to this Wednesday night. His departure on the
Monday had been in itself premature. He had come away without seeing the
Steels again, whereas he should have had an exhaustive interview with
one or both of them before embarking upon his task. But Steel's
half-hostile and half-scornful attitude was more than Langholm could
trust his temper to endure, and he had despaired of seeing Mrs.
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