The answer from Mr Outhouse came first.  To this Mr Trevelyan paid very little attention.  It was just what he expected.  Of course, Mr Outhouse’s assurance about Colonel Osborne went for nothing.  A man who would permit intercourse in his house between a married lady and her lover, would not scruple to deny that he had permitted it.  Then came Mr Bideawhile’s answer, which was very short.  Mr Bideawhile said that nothing could be done about the child till Mr Trevelyan should return to England and that he could give no opinion as to what should be done then till he knew more of the circumstances.  It was quite clear to Trevelyan that he must employ some other lawyer.  Mr Bideawhile had probably been corrupted by Colonel Osborne.  Could Bozzle recommend a lawyer?

From Bozzle himself there came no other immediate reply than, ’his duty, and that he would make further inquiries.’

CHAPTER XLVI

THE AMERICAN MINISTER

In the second week in October, Mr Glascock returned to Florence, intending to remain there till the weather should have become bearable at Naples.  His father was said to be better, but was in such a condition as hardly to receive much comfort from his son’s presence.  His mind was gone, and he knew no one but his nurse; and, though Mr Glascock was unwilling to put himself altogether out of the reach of returning at a day’s notice, he did not find himself obliged to remain in Naples during the heat of the autumn.  So Mr Glascock returned to the hotel at Florence, accompanied by the tall man who wore the buttons.  The hotel-keeper did not allow such a light to remain long hidden under a bushel, and it was soon spread far and wide that the Honourable Charles Glascock and his suite were again in the beautiful city.

And the fact was soon known to the American Minister and his family.  Mr Spalding was a man who at home had been very hostile to English interests.  Many American gentlemen are known for such hostility.  They make anti-English speeches about the country, as though they thought that war with England would produce certain triumph to the States, certain increase to American trade, and certain downfall to a tyranny which no Anglo-Saxon nation ought to endure.  But such is hardly their real opinion.  There, in the States, as also here in England, you shall from day to day hear men propounding, in very loud language, advanced theories of political action, the assertion of which is supposed to be necessary to the end which they have in view.  Men whom we know to have been as mild as sucking doves in the political aspiration of their whole lives, suddenly jump up, and with infuriated gestures declare themselves the enemies of everything existing.  When they have obtained their little purpose or have failed to do so they revert naturally into their sucking-dove elements.  It is so with Americans as frequently as with ourselves and there