the hopes of his young married happiness, that she would hardly have recognised him had she met him in the street.  He was thin, and pale, and haggard, and mean.  And as he stalked up and down the room, it seemed to her that the very character of the man was changed.  She had not previously known him to be pompous, unreasonable, and absurd.  She did not answer him at once, as she perceived that he had not finished his address and, after a moment’s pause, he continued.  ’Lady Rowley, there is nothing I would not have done for your daughter, for my wife.  All that I had was hers.  I did not dictate to her any mode of life; I required from her no sacrifices; I subjected her to no caprices; but I was determined to be master in my own house.’

’I do not think, Louis, that she has ever denied your right to be master.’

’To be master in my own house, and to be paramount in my influence over her.  So much I had a right to demand.’

‘Who has denied your right?’

’She has submitted herself to the counsels and to the influences of a man who has endeavoured to undermine me in her affection.  In saying that I make my accusation as light against her as is possible.  I might make it much heavier, and yet not sin against the truth.’

‘This is an illusion, Louis.’

’Ah well.  No doubt it becomes you to defend your child.  Was it an illusion when he went to Devonshire?  Was it an illusion when he corresponded with her contrary to my express orders both before and after that unhallowed journey?  Lady Rowley, there must be no more such illusions.  If my wife means to come back to me, and to have her child in her own hands, she must be penitent as regards the past, and obedient as regards the future.’

There was a wicked bitterness in that word penitent which almost maddened Lady Rowley.  She had come to this meeting believing that Trevelyan would be rejoiced to take back his wife, if details could be arranged for his doing so which should not subject him to the necessity of crying, peccavi; but she found him speaking of his wife as though he would be doing her the greatest possible favour in allowing her to come back to him dressed in sackcloth, and with ashes on her head.  She could understand from what she had heard that his tone and manner were much changed since he obtained possession of the child, and that he now conceived that he had his wife within his power.  That he should become a tyrant because he had the power to tyrannise was not in accordance with her former conception of the man’s character, but then he was so changed, that she felt that she knew nothing of the man who now stood before her.  ’I cannot acknowledge that my daughter has done anything that requires penitence,’ said Lady Rowley.

‘I dare say not, but my view is different.’

’She cannot admit herself to be wrong when she knows herself to be right.  You would not have her confess to a fault, the very idea of which has always been abhorrent to her?’