was in great part responsible for the misfortune of his daughter, by the encouragement which he had given to such a man as Colonel Osborne.  Sir Marmaduke had in consequence quarrelled both with the chief clerk and with Mr Outhouse, and had come home surly and discontented.  Lady Rowley and her eldest daughter were away, closeted at the moment with Lady Milborough, with whom they were endeavouring to arrange some plan by which the boy might at any rate be given back.  Poor Emily Trevelyan was humble enough now to Lady Milborough, was prepared to be humble to any one, and in any circumstances, so that she should not be required to acknowledge that she had entertained Colonel Osborne as her lover.  The two younger girls, Sophy and Lucy, were in the room when Stanbury was announced, as was also Sir Marmaduke, who at that very moment was uttering angry growls at the obstinacy and want of reason with which he had been treated by Mr Outhouse.  Now Sir Marmaduke had not so much as heard the name of Hugh Stanbury as yet; and Nora, though her listlessness was all at an end, at once felt how impossible it would be to explain any of the circumstances of her case in such an interview as this.  While, however, Hugh’s dear steps were heard upon the stairs, her feminine mind at once went to work to ascertain in what best mode, with what most attractive reason for his presence, she might introduce the young man to her father.  Had not the girls been then present, she thought that it might have been expedient to leave Hugh to tell his own story to Sir Marmaduke.  But she had no opportunity of sending her sisters away; and, unless chance should remove them, this could not be done.

‘He is son of the lady we were with at Nuncombe Putney,’ she whispered to her father as she got up to move across the room to welcome her lover.  Now Sir Marmaduke had expressed great disapproval of that retreat to Dartmoor, and had only understood respecting it that it had been arranged between Trevelyan and the family in whose custody his two daughters had been sent away into banishment.  He was not therefore specially disposed to welcome Hugh Stanbury in consequence of this mode of introduction.

Hugh, who had asked for Lady Rowley and Mrs Trevelyan and had learned that they were out before he had mentioned Miss Rowley’s name, was almost prepared to take his sweetheart into his arms.  In that half-minute he had taught himself to expect that he would meet her alone, and had altogether forgotten Sir Marmaduke.  Young men when they call at four o’clock in the day never expect to find papas at home.  And of Sophia and Lucy he had either heard nothing or had forgotten what he had heard.  He repressed himself however in time, and did not commit either Nora or himself by any very vehement demonstration of affection.  But he did hold her hand longer than he should have done, and Sir Marmaduke saw that he did so.