The tidings were great.  The very thing which his father had suggested, and which he had declared to be impossible, was being done.  The old banker himself would not, he thought, have dared to propose and carry out such a project.  The whole Bolton family had conspired together to keep his wife from him, and had allured her away by the false promise of a friendly visit!  He knew, too, that the law was on his side; but he knew also that he might find it very difficult to make use of the law.  If the world of Cambridge chose to think that Hester was not his wife, the world of Cambridge would probably support the Boltons by their opinion.  But if she, if his Hester, were true to him, and she certainly would be true to him—­and if she were as courageous as he believed her to be,—­then, as he thought, no house in Chesterton would be able to hold her.

He stood for a moment turning in his mind what he had better do.  Then he gave his orders to the man in a clear natural voice.  ’Take the horses out, Richard, and feed them.  You had better get your dinner here, so that I may be sure to find you here the moment I want you.

‘I won’t stir a step from the place,’ said the man.

Chapter XXXV

In Prison

What should he do?  John Caldigate, as he walked out of the inn-yard, had to decide for himself what he would do at once.  His first impulse was to go to the mayor and ask for assistance.  He had a right to the custody of his wife.  Her father had no right to make her a prisoner.  She was entitled to go whither she pleased, so long as she had his sanction and should she be separated from him by the action of the law, she would be entitled to go whither she pleased without sanction from any one.  Whether married or unmarried she was not subject to her father.  The husband was sure that he was entitled to the assistance of the police, but he doubted much whether he would be able to get it, and he was most averse to ask for it.

And yet what other step could he take?  With no purpose as yet quite fixed, he went to the bank, thinking that he might best commence his work by expostulating with his wife’s father.  It was Mr. Bolton’s habit to walk every morning into the town, unless he was deterred by heat or wet or ill health; and till lately it had been his habit also to walk back, his house being a mile and a half distant from the bank; but latterly the double walk had become too much for him, and, when the time for his return came, he would send out for a cab to take him home.  His hours were very various.  He would generally lunch at the bank, in his own little dingy room; but if things went badly with him, so as to disturb his mind, he would go back early in the day, and generally pass the afternoon asleep.  On this occasion he was very much troubled, so that when Caldigate reached the bank, which he did before one, Mr. Bolton was already getting into his cab.  ’Could I speak a few words to you, sir?’ said Caldigate in the street.