On the next day Sir Marmaduke purposed going to Willesden.  He was in great doubt whether or no he would first consult that very eminent man Dr Trite Turbury, as to the possibility, and if possible as to the expediency, of placing Mr Trevelyan under some control.  But Sir Marmaduke, though he would repeatedly declare that his son-in-law was mad, did not really believe in this madness.  He did not, that is, believe that Trevelyan was so mad as to be fairly exempt from the penalties of responsibility; and he was therefore desirous of speaking his own mind out fully to the man, and, as it were, of having his own personal revenge, before he might be deterred by the interposition of medical advice.  He resolved therefore that he would not see Sir Trite Turbury, at any rate till he had come back from Willesden.  He also went down in a cab, but he left the cab at the public-house at the corner of the road, and walked to the cottage.

When he asked whether Mr Trevelyan was at home, the woman of the house hesitated and then said that her lodger was out.  ’I particularly wish to see him,’ said Sir Marmaduke, feeling that the woman was lying to him.  ‘But he ain’t to be seen, sir,’ said the woman.  ’I know he is at home,’ said Sir Marmaduke.  But the argument was soon cut short by the appearance of Trevelyan behind the woman’s shoulder.

‘I am here, Sir Marmaduke Rowley,’ said Trevelyan.  ’If you wish to see me you may come in.  I will not say that you are welcome, but you can come in.’  Then the woman retired, and Sir Marmaduke followed Trevelyan into the room in which Lady Rowley and Emily had been received; but the child was not now in the chamber.

‘What are these charges that I hear against my daughter?’ said Sir Marmaduke, rushing at once into the midst of his indignation.

‘I do not know what charges you have heard.’

‘You have put her away.’

‘In strict accuracy that is not correct, Sir Marmaduke.’

’But she is put away.  She is in my house now because you have no house of your own for her.  Is not that so?  And when I came home she was staying with her uncle, because you had put her away.  And what was the meaning of her being sent down into Devonshire?  What has she done?  I am her father, and I expect to have an answer.’

‘You shall have an answer, certainly.’

‘And a true one.  I will have no hocus-pocus, no humbug, no Jesuitry.’

’Have you come here to insult me, Sir Marmaduke?  Because, if so, there shall be an end to this interview at once.’

’There shall not be an end—­by G—­, no, not till I have heard what is the meaning of all this.  Do you know what people are saying of you:  that you are mad, and that you must be locked up, and your child taken away from you, and your property?’

’Who are the people that say so?  Yourself and, perhaps, Lady Rowley?  Does my wife say so?  Does she think that I am mad?  She did not think so on Thursday, when she prayed that she might be allowed to come back and live with me.’