‘If you could manage that, Mr Stanbury!’ said Lady Rowley.

‘I hardly see that it would do much good,’ said Hugh.  ’Indeed I do not know why he should keep the place a secret.  I suppose he has a right to the boy until the mother shall have made good her claim before the court.’  He promised, however, that he would do his best to ascertain where the child was kept, and where Trevelyan resided, and then having been nearly an hour at the house he was forced to get up and take his leave.  He had said not a word to any one of the business that had brought him there.  He had not even whispered an assurance of his affection to Nora.  Till the two elder ladies had come in, and the subject of the taking of the boy had been mooted, he had sat there as a perfect stranger.  He thought that it was manifest enough that Nora had told her secret to no one.  It seemed to him that Mrs Trevelyan must have forgotten it—­that Nora herself must have forgotten it, if such forgetting could be possible!  He got up, however, and took his leave, and was comforted in some slight degree by seeing that there was a tear in Nora’s eye.

‘Who is he?’ demanded Sir Marmaduke, as soon as the door was closed.

‘He is a young man who was an intimate friend of Louis’s,’ answered Mrs Trevelyan; ’but he is so no longer, because he sees how infatuated Louis has been.’

‘And why does he come here?’

‘We know him very well,’ continued Mrs Trevelyan.  ’It was he that arranged our journey down to Devonshire.  He was very kind about it, and so were his mother and sister.  We have every reason to be grateful to Mr Stanbury.’  This was all very well, but Nora nevertheless felt that the interview had been anything but successful.

‘Has he any profession?’ asked Sir Marmaduke.

‘He writes for the press,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

‘What do you mean—­books?’

‘No, for a newspaper.’

‘For a penny newspaper,’ said Nora boldly ‘for the Daily Record.’

‘Then I hope he won’t come here any more,’ said Sir Marmaduke.  Nora paused a moment, striving to find words for some speech which might be true to her love and yet not unseemly; but finding no such words ready, she got up from her seat and walked out of the room.  ’What is the meaning of it all?’ asked Sir Marmaduke.  There was a silence for a while, and then he repeated his question in another form.  ’Is there any reason for his coming here—­about Nora?’

‘I think he is attached to Nora,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.  ‘My dear,’ said Lady Rowley, ‘perhaps we had better not speak about it just now.’

‘I suppose he has not a penny in the world,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

‘He has what he earns,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

’If Nora understands her duty she will never let me hear his name again,’ said Sir Marmaduke.  Then there was nothing more said, and as soon as they could escape, both Lady Rowley and Mrs Trevelyan left the room.