On the next day Stanbury went out to Casalunga alone.  He had calculated, on leaving England, that if any good might be done at Siena it could be done in three days, and that he would have been able to start on his return on the Wednesday morning or on Wednesday evening at the latest.  But now there did not seem to be any chance of that, and he hardly knew how to guess when he might get away.  He had sent a telegram to Lady Rowley after his first visit, in which he had simply said that things were not at all changed at Casalunga, and he had written to Nora each day since his arrival.  His stay was prolonged at great expense and inconvenience to himself; and yet it was impossible that he should go and leave his work half finished.  As he walked up the hill to the house he felt very angry with Trevelyan, and prepared himself to use hard words and dreadful threats.  But at the very moment of his entrance on the terrace, Trevelyan professed himself ready to go to England.  ‘That’s right, old fellow,’ said Hugh.  ‘I am so glad.’  But in expressing his joy he had hardly noticed Trevelyan’s voice and appearance.

‘I might as well go,’ he said.  ’It matters little where I am, or whether they say that I am mad or sane.’

’When we have you over there, nobody shall say a word that is disagreeable.’

’I only hope that you may not have the trouble of burying me on the road.  You don’t know, Stanbury, how ill I am.  I cannot eat.  If I were at the bottom of that hill, I could no more walk up it than I could fly.  I cannot sleep, and at night my bed is wet through with perspiration.  I can remember nothing nothing but what I ought to forget.’

‘We’ll put you on your legs again when we get you to your own climate.’

‘I shall be a poor traveller a poor traveller; but I will do my best.’

When would he start?  That was the next question.  Trevelyan asked for a week, and Stanbury brought him down at last to three days.  They would go to Florence by the evening train on Friday, and sleep there.  Emily should come out and assist him to arrange his things on the morrow.  Having finished so much of his business, Stanbury returned to Siena.  They both feared that he might be found on the next day to have departed from his intention; but no such idea seemed to have occurred to him.  He gave instructions as to the notice to be served on the agent from the Hospital as to his house, and allowed Emily to go among his things and make preparations for the journey.  He did not say much to her; and when she attempted, with a soft half-uttered word, to assure him that the threat of Italian interference, which had come from Stanbury, had not reached Stanbury from her, he simply shook his head sadly.  She could not understand whether he did not believe her, or whether he simply wished that the subject should be dropped.  She could elicit no sign of affection from him, nor would he willingly accept such from her, but he allowed her to prepare for the journey,