The Dowager Countess Melton was a perceptive woman who understood that her acquaintance was in a position of disgrace. She recognized that promising young officers generally would not find themselves assigned to remote prisons in Scotland unless they had fallen out of favor with their superiors. Her suspicions were fueled by information from her brother Harold, who hinted that the young officer's situation stemmed from a personal scandal involving romantic entanglements, suggesting something more scandalous than mere professional missteps.