There could be no doubt that Trevelyan had started with his boy, fearing the result of the medical or legal interference with his affairs which was about to be made at Sir Marmaduke’s instance.  He had written a few words to his wife, neither commencing nor ending his note after any usual fashion, telling her that he thought it expedient to travel, that he had secured the services of a nurse for the little boy, and that during his absence a certain income would, as heretofore, be paid to her.  He said nothing as to his probable return, or as to her future life; nor was there anything to indicate whither he was going.  Stanbury, however, had learned from the faithless and frightened Bozzle that Trevelyan’s letters were to be sent after him to Florence.  Mr Bozzle, in giving this information, had acknowledged that his employer was ‘becoming no longer quite himself under his troubles,’ and had expressed his opinion that he ought to be ‘looked after.’  Bozzle had made his money; and now, with a grain of humanity mixed with many grains of faithlessness, reconciled it to himself to tell his master’s secrets to his master’s enemies.  What would a counsel be able to say about his conduct in a court of law?  That was the question which Bozzle was always asking himself as to his own business.  That he should be abused by a barrister to a jury, and exposed as a spy and a fiend, was, he thought, a matter of course.  To be so abused was a part of his profession.  But it was expedient for him in all cases to secure some loop-hole of apparent duty by which he might in part escape from such censures.  He was untrue to his employer now, because he thought that his employer ought to be ‘looked after.’  He did, no doubt, take a five-pound note from Hugh Stanbury; but then it was necessary that he should live.  He must be paid for his time.  In this way Trevelyan started for Florence, and within a week afterwards the Rowleys were upon his track.

Nothing had been said by Sir Marmaduke to Nora as to her lover since that stormy interview in which both father and daughter had expressed their opinions very strongly, and very little had been said by Lady Rowley.  Lady Rowley had spoken more than once of Nora’s return to the Mandarins, and had once alluded to it as a certainty.  ’But I do not know that I shall go back,’ Nora had said.  ‘My dear,’ the mother had replied, ’unless you are married, I suppose your home must be with your parents.’  Nora, having made her protest, did not think it necessary to persevere, and so the matter was dropped.  It was known, however, that they must all come back to London before they started for their seat of government, and therefore the subject did not at present assume its difficult aspect.  There was a tacit understanding among them that everything should be done to make the journey pleasant to the young mother who was in search of her son; and, in addition to this, Lady Rowley had her own little understanding, which was very tacit indeed, that in Mr Glascock might be found an escape from one of their great family difficulties.