‘Fellside?  You think of going to Fellside?’

’Yes.  You know how fond I am of that place.  I little thought when you settled it upon me—­a cottage in Westmoreland with fifty acres of garden and meadow—­so utterly insignificant—­that I should ever like it better than any of your places.’

’A charming retreat in summer; but we have never wintered there?  What put it into your head to go there at such a season as this?  Why, I daresay the snow is on the tops of the hills already.’

’It is the only place I know where you will not be watched and talked about,’ replied Lady Maulevrier.  ’You will be out of the eye of the world.  I should think that consideration would weigh more with you than two or three degrees of the thermometer.’

‘I detest cold,’ said the Earl, ‘and in my weak health——­’

‘We will take care of you,’ answered her ladyship; and in the discussion which followed she bore herself so firmly that her husband was fain to give way.

How could a disgraced and ruined man, broken in health and spirits, contest the mere details of life with a high-spirited woman ten years his junior?

The Earl wanted to go to London, and remain there at least a week, but this her ladyship strenuously opposed.  He must see his lawyer, he urged; there were steps to be taken which could be taken only under legal advice—­counsel to be retained.  If this lying invention of Satan were really destined to take the form of a public trial, he must be prepared to fight his foes on their own ground.

‘You can make all your preparations at Fellside,’ answered his wife, resolutely.  ’I have seen Messrs. Rigby and Rider, and your own particular ally, Rigby, will go to you at Fellside whenever you want him.’

‘That is not like my being on the spot,’ said his lordship, nervously, evidently much disconcerted by her ladyship’s firmness, but too feeble in mind and body for a prolonged contest.

’I ought to be on the spot.  I am not without influence; I have friends, men in power.’

’Surely you are not going to appeal to friendship in order to vindicate your honour.  These charges are true or false.  If they are false your own manhood, your own rectitude, can face them and trample upon them, unaided by back-stairs influence.  If they are true, no one can help you.’

‘I think you, at least, ought to know that they are as false as hell,’ retorted the Earl, with an attempt to maintain his dignity.

‘I have acted as if I so believed,’ replied his wife.  ’I have lived as if there were no such slanders in the air.  I have steadily ignored every report, every insinuation—­have held my head as high as if I knew you were immaculate.’

‘I expected as much from you,’ answered the Earl, coolly.  ’If I had not known you were a woman of sense I should not have married you.’

This was his utmost expression of gratitude.  His next remarks had reference solely to his own comfort.  Where were his rooms? at what hour were they to dine?  And hereupon he rang for his valet, a German Swiss, and a servant out of a thousand.