and in front of the other was a variegated laurel.  There were two small morsels of green turf, and a distant view round the corner of the house of a row of cabbage stumps.  If Trevelyan were living there, he had certainly come down in the world since the days in which he had occupied the house in Curzon Street.  The two ladies got out of the cab, and slowly walked across the little garden.  Mrs Trevelyan was dressed in black, and she wore a thick veil.

She had altogether been unable to make up her mind as to what should be her conduct to her husband should she see him.  That must be governed by circumstances as they might occur.  Her visit was made not to him, but to her boy.

The door was opened before they knocked, and Trevelyan himself was standing in the narrow passage.

Lady Rowley was the first to speak.  ‘Louis,’ she said, ’I have brought your wife to see you.’

‘Who told you that I was here?’ he asked, still standing in the passage.

‘Of course a mother would find out where was her child,’ said Lady Rowley.

‘You should not have come here without notice,’ he said.  ’I was careful to let you know the conditions on which you should come.’

‘You do not mean that I shall not see my child,’ said the mother.  ’Oh, Louis, you will let me see him.’

Trevelyan hesitated a moment, still keeping his position firmly in the doorway.  By this time an old woman, decently dressed and of comfortable appearance, had taken her place behind him, and behind her was a slip of a girl about fifteen years of age.  This was the owner of River’s Cottage and her daughter, and all the inhabitants of the cottage were now there, standing in the passage.  ‘I ought not to let you see him,’ said Trevelyan; ’you have intruded upon me in coming here!  I had not wished to see you here till you had complied with the order I had given you.’  What a meeting between a husband and a wife who had not seen each other now for many months, between a husband and a wife who were still young enough not to have outlived the first impulses of their early love!  He still stood there guarding the way, and had not even put out his hand to greet her.  He was guarding the way lest she should, without his permission, obtain access to her own child!  She had not removed her veil, and now she hardly dared to step over the threshold of her husband’s house.  At this moment, she perceived that the woman behind was pointing to the room on the left, as the cottage was entered, and Emily at once understood that her boy was there.  Then at that moment she heard her son’s voice, as, in his solitude, the child began to cry.  ‘I must go in,’ she said; ‘I will go in;’ and rushing on she tried to push aside her husband.  Her mother aided her, nor did Trevelyan attempt to stop her with violence, and in a moment she was kneeling at the foot of a small sofa, with her child in her arms.  ’I had not intended to hinder you,’ said Trevelyan, ’but I require from you a promise that you will not attempt to remove him.’