‘You will let the child go to his mother?’

’Certainly not.  If she wants to see the child, he is here.  If she will come without her father she shall see him.  She shall not take him from hence.  Nor shall she return to live with me, without full acknowledgment of her fault, and promises of an amended life.  I know what I am saying, Mr Glascock, and have thought of these things perhaps more than you have done.  I am obliged to you for coming to me; but now, if you please, I would prefer to be alone.’

Mr Glascock, seeing that nothing further could be done, joined Sir Marmaduke, and the two walked down to their carriage at the bottom of the hill.  Mr Glascock, as he went, declared his conviction that the unfortunate man was altogether mad, and that it would be necessary to obtain some interference on the part of the authorities for the protection of the child.  How this could be done, or whether it could be done in time to intercept a further flight on the part of Trevelyan, Mr Glascock could not say.  It was his idea that Mrs Trevelyan should herself go out to Casalunga, and try the force of her own persuasion.

‘I believe that he would murder her,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

’He would not do that.  There is a glimmer of sense in all his madness, which will keep him from any actual violence.’

CHAPTER LXXIX

‘I can sleep on the boards’

Three days after this there came another carriage to the bottom of the hill on which Casalunga stood, and a lady got out of it all alone.  It was Emily Trevelyan, and she had come thither from Siena in quest of her husband and her child.  On the previous day Sir Marmaduke’s courier had been at the house with a note from the wife to the husband, and had returned with an answer, in which Mrs Trevelyan was told that, if she would come quite alone, she should see her child.  Sir Marmaduke had been averse to any further intercourse with the man, other than what might be made in accordance with medical advice, and, if possible, with government authority.  Lady Rowley had assented to her daughter’s wish, but had suggested that she should at least be allowed to go also at any rate, as far as the bottom of the hill.  But Emily had been very firm, and Mr Glascock had supported her.  He was confident that the man would do no harm to her, and he was indisposed to believe that any interference on the part of the Italian Government could be procured in such a case with sufficient celerity to be of use.  He still thought it might be possible that the wife might prevail over the husband, or the mother over the father.  Sir Marmaduke was at last obliged to yield, and Mrs Trevelyan went to Siena with no other companion but the courier.  From Siena she made the journey quite alone; and having learned the circumstances of the house from Mr Glascock, she got out of the carriage, and walked up the hill.