"I should be interested to know what those are," I remarked.
"Certainly. The first and most powerful of all is, of course, possession."
Mabane nodded.
"And after that?"
"The fact that not one of the three people who have appealed to you for the charge of the child is in a position to use the only real force which exists in this land. I mean the law," Grooten continued.
This kept us silent again for a moment. Mabane, I could see, was getting a little ruffled.
"You pelt us with enigmas, sir," he said. "You answer our questions only by propounding fresh conundrums. One thing, at least, you may feel disposed to tell us. What is your own relationship to Isobel?"
"None," Mr. Grooten answered.
"Your interest, then?"
Mr. Grooten remained silent. He sat in his chair, very still and very quiet. Yet in his eyes there shone for a moment something which seemed to bring into the little room the shadow of great things. Mabane and I both felt it. We had the sense of having been left behind. The little man in his chair seemed to have been lifted out of our reach into the mightier world of passion and suffering and self-conquest.