his coming with almost more of fear than of hope.  Mrs Outhouse expressed an opinion that Mr Trevelyan must surely be mad; and Nora suggested that the possibility of such perversity on the part of a man made it almost unwise in any woman to trust herself to the power of a husband, ’But there are not many like him, thank God,’ said Mrs Outhouse, bridling in her wrath.  Thus they were very friendly together, and Hugh was allowed to feel that he stood upon comfortable terms in the parsonage; but he did not as yet see how he was to carry out his project for the present day.

At last Mrs Trevelyan went away with the child.  Hugh felt that he ought to go, but stayed courageously.  He thought he could perceive that Nora suspected the cause of his assiduity; but it was quite evident that Mrs Outhouse did not do so.  Mrs Outhouse, having reconciled herself to the young man, was by no means averse to his presence.  She went on talking about the wickedness of Trevelyan, and her brother’s anger, and the fate of the little boy, till at last the little boy’s mother came back into the room.  Then Mrs Outhouse went.  They must excuse her for a few minutes, she said.  If only she would have gone a few minutes sooner, how well her absence might have been excused.  Nora understood it all now; and though she became almost breathless, she was not surprised, when Hugh got up from his chair and asked her sister to go away.  ’Mrs Trevelyan,’ he said, ’I want to speak a few words to your sister, I hope you will give me the opportunity.’

‘Nora!’ exclaimed Mrs Trevelyan.

‘She knows nothing about it,’ said Hugh.

‘Am I to go?’ said Mrs Trevelyan to her sister.  But Nora said never a word.  She sat perfectly fixed, not turning her eyes from the object on which she was gazing.

‘Pray, pray do,’ said Hugh.

‘I cannot think that it will be for any good,’ said Mrs Trevelyan; ’but I know that she may be trusted.  And I suppose it ought to be so, if you wish it.’

‘I do wish it, of all things,’ said Hugh, still standing up, and almost turning the elder sister out of the room by the force of his look and voice.  Then, with another pause of a moment, Mrs Trevelyan rose from her chair and left the room, closing the door after her.

Hugh, when he found that the coast was clear for him, immediately began his task with a conviction that not a moment was to be lost.  He had told himself a dozen times that the matter was hopeless, that Nora had shown him by every means in her power that she was indifferent to him, that she with all her friends would know that such a marriage was out of the question; and he had in truth come to believe that the mission which he had in hand was one in which success was not possible.  But he thought that it was his duty to go on with it.  ’If a man love a woman, even though it be the king and the beggar-woman reversed though it be a beggar and a queen, he should tell her of it.  If it be so, she has a right to know it and to take her choice.  And he has a right to tell her, and to say what he can for himself.’  Such was Hugh’s doctrine in the matter; and, acting upon it, he found himself alone with his mistress.