CHAPTER LXXXV

THE BATHS OF LUCCA

June was now far advanced, and the Rowleys and the Spaldings had removed from Florence to the Baths of Lucca.  Mr Glascock had followed in their wake, and the whole party were living at the Baths in one of those hotels in which so many English and Americans are wont to congregate in the early weeks of the Italian summer.  The marriage was to take place in the last week of the month; and all the party were to return to Florence for the occasion with the exception of Sir Marmaduke and Mrs Trevelyan.  She was altogether unfitted for wedding joys, and her father had promised to bear her company when the others left her.  Mr Glascock and Caroline Spalding were to be married in Florence, and were to depart immediately from thence for some of the cooler parts of Switzerland.  After that Sir Marmaduke and Lady Rowley were to return to London with their daughters, preparatory to that dreary journey back to the Mandarins; and they had not even yet resolved what they had better do respecting that unfortunate man who was living in seclusion on the hilltop near Siena.  They had consulted lawyers and doctors in Florence, but it had seemed that everybody there was afraid of putting the law in force against an Englishman.  Doubtless there was a law in respect to the custody of the insane; and it was admitted that if Trevelyan were dangerously mad something could be done; but it seemed that nobody was willing to stir in such a case as that which now existed.  Something, it was said, might be done at some future time; but the difficulties were so great that nothing could be done now.

It was very sad, because it was necessary that some decision should be made as to the future residence of Mrs Trevelyan and of Nora.  Emily had declared that nothing should induce her to go to the Islands with her father and mother unless her boy went with her.  Since her journey to Casalunga she had also expressed her unwillingness to leave her husband.  Her heart had been greatly softened towards him, and she had declared that where he remained, there would she remain as near to him as circumstances would admit.  It might be that at last her care would be necessary for his comfort.  He supplied her with means of living, and she would use these means as well as she might be able in his service.

Then there had arisen the question of Nora’s future residence.  And there had come troubles and storms in the family.  Nora had said that she would not go back to the Mandarins, but had not at first been able to say where or how she would live.  She had suggested that she might stay with her sister, but her father had insisted that she could not live on the income supplied by Trevelyan.  Then, when pressed hard, she had declared that she intended to live on Hugh Stanbury’s income.  She would marry him at once with her father’s leave, if she could get it, but without it if it needs must