‘Always!’

‘Consult them now then, and bid her come back to you.’

’No never!  As far as I can see, I will never do so.  The moment she is away from me this man goes to her, and she receives him.  She must have known that she was wrong and you must know it.’

‘I do not think that she is half so wrong as you yourself,’ said Stanbury.  To this Trevelyan made no answer, and they both remained silent some minutes.  Stanbury had a communication to make before he went, but it was one which he wished to delay as long as there was a chance that his friend’s heart might be softened, one which he need not make if Trevelyan would consent to receive his wife back to his house.  There was the day’s paper lying on the table, and Stanbury had taken it up and was reading it or pretending to read it.

‘I will tell you what I propose to do,’ said Trevelyan.

‘Well.’

‘It is best both for her and for me that we should be apart.’

‘I cannot understand how you can be so mad as to say so.’

’You don’t understand what I feel.  Heaven and earth!  To have a man coming and going.  But, never mind.  You do not see it, and nothing will make you see it.  And there is no reason why you should.’

’I certainly do not see it.  I do not believe that your wife cares more for Colonel Osborne, except as an old friend of her father’s, than she does for the fellow that sweeps the crossing.  It is a matter in which I am bound to tell you what I think.’

’Very well.  Now, if you have freed your mind, I will tell you my purpose.  I am bound to do so, because your people are concerned in it.  I shall go abroad.’

‘And leave her in England?’

’Certainly.  She will be safer here than she can be abroad unless she should choose to go back with her father to the islands.’

‘And take the boy?’

’No I could not permit that.  What I intend is this.  I will give her 800 pounds a year, as long as I have reason to believe that she has no communication whatever, either by word of mouth or by letter, with that man.  If she does, I will put the case immediately into the hands of my lawyer, with instructions to him to ascertain from counsel what severest steps I can take.’

‘How I hate that word severe, when applied to a woman.’

’I dare say you do when applied to another man’s wife.  But there will be no severity in my first proposition.  As for the child, if I approve of the place in which she lives, as I do at present, he shall remain with her for nine months in the year till he is six years old.  Then he must come to me.  And he shall come to me altogether if she sees or hears from that man.  I believe that 800 pounds a year will enable her to live with all comfort under your mother’s roof.’’

‘As to that,’ said Stanbury, slowly, ’I suppose I had better tell you at once, that the Nuncombe Putney arrangement cannot be considered as permanent.’