Thus she delivered herself; and Louis Trevelyan, though he was sore and angry, could not but feel that she had taken the part of a friend.  All that she had said had been true; all that she had said to him he had said to himself more than once.  He too hated the man.  He believed him to be a snake in the grass.  But it was intolerably bitter to him that he should be warned about his wife’s conduct by any living human being; that he, to whom the world had been so full of good fortune, that he, who had in truth taught himself to think that he deserved so much good fortune, should be made the subject of care on behalf of his friend, because of danger between himself and his wife!  On the spur of the moment he did not know what answer to make.  ‘He is not a man whom I like myself,’ he said.

‘Just be careful, Louis, that is all,’ said Lady Milborough, and then she was gone.

To be cautioned about his wife’s conduct cannot be pleasant to any man, and it was very unpleasant to Louis Trevelyan.  He, too, had been asked a question about Sir Marmaduke’s expected visit to England after the ladies had left the room.  All the town had heard of it except himself.  He hardly spoke another word that evening till the brougham was announced; and his wife had observed his silence.  When they were seated in the carriage, he together with his wife and Nora Rowley, he immediately asked a question about Sir Marmaduke.  ‘Emily,’ he said, ’is there any truth in a report I hear that your father is coming home?’ No answer was made, and for a moment or two there was silence.  ‘You must have heard of it, then?’ he said.  ’Perhaps you can tell me, Nora, as Emily will not reply.  Have you heard anything of your father’s coming?’

‘Yes; I have heard of it,’ said Nora slowly.

‘And why have I not been told?’

‘It was to be kept a secret,’ said Mrs Trevelyan boldly.

’A secret from me; and everybody else knows it!  And why was it to be a secret?’

‘Colonel Osborne did not wish that it should be known,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

’And what has Colonel Osborne to do between you and your father in any matter with which I may not be made acquainted?  I will have nothing more between you and Colonel Osborne.  You shall not see Colonel Osborne.  Do you hear me?’

‘Yes, I hear you, Louis.’

’And do you mean to obey me?  By G—­, you shall obey me.  Remember this, that I lay my positive order upon you, that you shall not see Colonel Osborne again.  You do not know it, perhaps, but you are already forfeiting your reputation as an honest woman, and bringing disgrace upon me by your familiarity with Colonel Osborne.’

‘Oh, Louis, do not say that!’ said Nora.

‘You had better let him speak it all at once,’ said Emily.

’I have said what I have got to say.  It is now only necessary that you should give me your solemn assurance that you will obey me.’