’But I asked him, mamma. Did you not hear
me? I could not say the word plainer but I asked
him whether he meant that sin. He must have known,
and he would not answer me. And he spoke of my
transgression. Mamma, if he believed that, he
would not let me come back at all.’
‘He did not believe it, Emily.’
’Could he possibly then so accuse me, the mother
of his child! If his heart be utterly hard and
false towards me, if it is possible that he should
be cruel to me with such cruelty as that, still he
must love his boy. Why did he not answer me,
and say that he did not think it?’
‘Simply because his reason has left him.’
’But if he be mad, mamma, ought we to leave
him like that? And, then, did you see his eyes,
and his face, and his hands? Did you observe how
thin he is and his back, how bent? And his clothes,
how they were torn and soiled. It cannot be right
that he should be left like that.’
‘We will tell papa when we get home,’
said Lady Rowley, who was herself beginning to be
somewhat frightened by what she had seen. It is
all very well to declare that a friend is mad when
one simply desires to justify one’s self in
opposition to that friend, but the matter becomes
much more serious when evidence of the friend’s
insanity becomes true and circumstantial. ’I
certainly think that a physician should see him,’
continued Lady Rowley. On their return home Sir
Marmaduke was told of what had occurred, and there
was a long family discussion in which it was decided
that Lady Milborough should be consulted, as being
the oldest friend of Louis Trevelyan himself with whom
they were acquainted. Trevelyan had relatives
of his own name living in Cornwall; but Mrs Trevelyan
herself had never even met one of that branch of the
family.
Sir Marmaduke, however, resolved that he himself would
go out to see his son-in-law. He too had called
Trevelyan mad, but he did not believe that the madness
was of such a nature as to interfere with his own
duties in punishing the man who had ill used his daughter.
He would at any rate see Trevelyan himself; but of
this he said nothing either to his wife or to his
child.
MAJOR MAGRUDER’S COMMITTEE
Sir Marmaduke could not go out to Willesden on the
morning after Lady Rowley’s return from River’s
Cottage, because on that day he was summoned to attend
at twelve o’clock before a Committee of the House
of Commons, to give his evidence and, the fruit of
his experience as to the government of British colonies
generally; and as he went down to the House in a cab
from Manchester Street he thoroughly wished that his
friend Colonel Osborne had not been so efficacious
in bringing him home. The task before him was
one which he thoroughly disliked, and of which he
was afraid. He dreaded the inquisitors before
whom he was to appear, and felt that though he was
