It is a truth, I think, that the past quite often makes itself present in the lives of most of us. A friend with whom we'd quarrelled may reappear as an enemy, unforgiving of the past and destructive. The girl a man almost married has a daughter who loves the man's son. The past comes to our attention even in so ephemeral a way as through a fragrance long forgotten. But, if extortion is to be taken literally, there must be something in the past of Mrs Charles Layton that makes her present frightening.