and I will obey him,’ Emily had answered.  And she had gone on to plead that in her present condition she was under no orders from her husband.  She was left to judge for herself, and judging for herself she knew, as she said, that it best that she should write to Colonel Osborne.  Unfortunately there was no ground for hoping that Colonel Osborne was ignorant of this insane jealousy on the part of her husband.  It was better, therefore, she said, that she should write to him whom on the occasion she took care to name to her sister as ‘papa’s old friend’ and explain to him what she would wish him to do, and what not to do.  Colonel Osborne answered the letter very quickly, throwing much more of demonstrative affection than he should have done into his ‘Dear Emily’ and his ‘Dearest Friend.’  Of course Mrs Trevelyan had burned this answer, and of course Mr Trevelyan had been told of the correspondence.  His wife, indeed, had been especially careful that there should be nothing secret about the matter that it should be so known in the house that Mr Trevelyan should be sure to hear of it.  And he had heard of it, and been driven almost mad by it.  He had flown off to Lady Milborough, and had reduced his old friend to despair by declaring that, after all, he began to fear that his wife was was was infatuated by that d scoundrel.  Lady Milborough forgave the language, but protested that he was wrong in his suspicion.  ’To continue to correspond with him after what I have said to her!’ exclaimed Trevelyan.  ’Take her to Naples at once,’ said Lady Milborough, ‘at once!’ ‘And have him after me?’ said Trevelyan.  Lady Milborough had no answer ready, and not having thought of this looked very blank.  ’I should find it harder to deal with her there even than here,’ continued Trevelyan.  Then it was that Lady Milborough spoke of the small town in the west of France, urging as her reason that such a man as Colonel Osborne would certainly not follow them there; but Trevelyan had become indignant at this, declaring that if his wife’s good name could be preserved in no other manner than that, it would not be worth preserving at all.  Then Lady Milborough had begun to cry, and had continued crying for a very long time.  She was very unhappy as unhappy as her nature would allow her to be.  She would have made almost any sacrifice to bring the two young people together, would have willingly given her time, her money, her labour in the cause, would probably herself have gone to the little town in the west of France, had her going been of any service.  But, nevertheless, after her own fashion, she extracted no small enjoyment out of the circumstances of this miserable quarrel.  The Lady Milboroughs of the day hate the Colonel Osbornes from the very bottoms of their warm hearts and pure souls; but they respect the Colonel Osbornes almost as much as they hate them, and find it to be an inestimable privilege to be brought into some contact with these roaring lions.