of taking Mrs Trevelyan with them also; and in saying this she hinted that if Nora were disposed to stand by her engagement, and Mr Stanbury equally so disposed, there might be some possibility of a marriage at a future period.  Only, in such case, there must be no correspondence.  In answer to this Hugh declared that he regarded such a scheme as being altogether bad.  The Mandarins were so very far distant that he might as well be engaged to an angel in heaven.  Nora, if she were to go away now, would perhaps never come back again; and if she did come back, would be an old woman, with hollow cheeks.  In replying to this proposition, he let fall an opinion that Nora was old enough to judge for herself.  He said nothing about her actual age, and did not venture to plead that the young lady had a legal right to do as she liked with herself; but he made it manifest that such an idea was in his mind.  In answer to this, Lady Rowley asserted that Nora was a good girl, and would do as her father told her; but she did not venture to assert that Nora would give up her engagement.  Lady Rowley at last undertook to speak to Sir Rowley, and to speak also to her daughter.  Hugh was asked for his address, and gave that of the office of the D. R. He was always to be found there between three and five; and after that, four times a week, in the reporters’ gallery of the House of Commons.  Then he was at some pains to explain to Lady Rowley that though he attended the reporters’ gallery, he did not report himself.  It was his duty to write leading political articles, and, to enable him to do so, he attended the debates.

Before he went Mrs Trevelyan thanked him most cordially for the trouble he had taken in procuring for her the address at Willesden, and gave him some account of the journey which she and her mother had made to River’s Cottage.  He argued with both of them that the unfortunate man must now be regarded as being altogether out of his mind, and something was said as to the great wisdom and experience of Dr Trite Turbury.  Then Hugh Stanbury took his leave; and even Lady Rowley bade him adieu with kind cordiality.  ’I don’t wonder, mamma, that Nora should like him,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

’That is all very well, my dear, and no doubt he is pleasant, and manly, and all that; but really it would be almost like marrying a beggar.’

‘For myself,’ said Mrs Trevelyan, ’if I could begin life again, I do not think that any temptation would induce me to place myself in a man’s power.’

Sir Marmaduke was told of all this on his return home, and he asked many questions as to the nature of Stanbury’s work.  When it was explained to him, Lady Rowley repeating as nearly as she could all that Hugh had himself said about it, he expressed his opinion that writing for a penny newspaper was hardly more safe as a source of income than betting on horse races.  ‘I don’t see that it is wrong,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

’I say nothing about wrong.  I simply assert that it is uncertain.  The very existence of such a periodical must in itself be most insecure.’  Sir Marmaduke, amidst the cares of his government at the Mandarins, had, perhaps, had no better opportunity of watching what was going on in the world of letters than had fallen to the lot of Miss Stanbury at Exeter.