and never hinted that his purpose might again be liable
to change. On the Friday, Emily with her child,
and Hugh with all their baggage, travelled out on
the road to Casalunga, thinking it better that there
should be no halt in the town on their return.
At Casalunga, Hugh went up the hill with the driver,
leaving Mrs Trevelyan in the carriage. He had
been out at the house before in the morning, and had
given all necessary orders, but still at the last
moment he thought that there might be failure.
But Trevelyan was ready, having dressed himself up
with a laced shirt, and changed his dressing-gown
for a blue frock-coat, and his brocaded cap for a
Paris hat, very pointed before and behind, and closely
turned up at the sides. But Stanbury did not
in the least care for his friend’s dress.
‘Take my arm,’ he said, ’and we will
go down, fair and easy. Emily would not come
up because of the heat.’ He suffered himself
to be led, or almost carried down the hill; and three
women, and the coachman, and an old countryman who
worked on the farm, followed with the luggage.
It took about an hour and a half to pack the things;
but at last they were all packed, and corded, and
bound together with sticks, as though it were intended
that they should travel in that form to Moscow.
Trevelyan the meanwhile sat on a chair which had been
brought out for him from one of the cottages, and his
wife stood beside him with her boy. ‘Now
then we are ready,’ said Stanbury. And in
that way they bade farewell to Casalunga. Trevelyan
sat speechless in the carriage, and would not even
notice the child. He seemed to be half dreaming
and to fix his eyes on vacancy. ’He appears
to think of nothing now,’ Emily said that evening
to Stanbury. But who can tell how busy and how
troubled are the thoughts of a madman!
They had now succeeded in their object of inducing
their patient to return with them to England; but
what were they to do with him when they had reached
home with him? They rested only a night at Florence;
but they found their fellow-traveller so weary, that
they were unable to get beyond Bologna on the second
day. Many questions were asked of him as to where
he himself would wish to take up his residence in
England; but it was found almost impossible to get
an answer. Once he suggested that he would like
to go back to Mrs Fuller’s cottage at Willesden,
from whence they concluded that he would wish to live
somewhere out of London. On his first day’s
journey he was moody and silent, wilfully assuming
the airs of a much-injured person. He spoke hardly
at all, and would notice nothing that was said to him
by his wife. He declared once that he regarded
Stanbury as his keeper, and endeavoured to be disagreeable
and sullenly combative; but on the second day, he
was too weak for this, and accepted, without remonstrance,
the attentions that were paid to him. At Bologna
they rested a day, and from thence both Stanbury and
Mrs Trevelyan wrote to Nora. They did not know