"Yes. Mrs. Renshaw has, in some illicit manner, got a document with my signature attached—a very grave document. This is strictly between ourselves."
"Strictly."
"And she threatens to use it against me."
"Yes."
"To use it against me, unless I return to her at once the letter of hers which I put in Mr. Pettigrew's keeping."
"Oh!"
"Yes. She is a violent and very vicious woman. I have not slept all night. I live, as you perhaps know, at Hitchin. I took the first train I could conveniently catch to town this morning."
The horrible fact was beginning to dawn on Brownlow that Simon had not brought those papers back to the office. He said nothing; his lips, for a moment, had gone dry.
"How she got hold of that document with my name to it I cannot tell," said Mr. Tidd, "but she will use it against me most certainly unless I return that letter."
"Perhaps," said Brownlow, recovering himself, "perhaps she is only threatening—bluffing, as they call it."