‘I am sure that he meant not the slightest harm, no more than she did.’

’He was old enough, and ought to have known better.  And when the first hint of an uneasiness in the mind of Louis was suggested to him, his feelings as a gentleman should have prompted him to remove himself.  Let the suspicion have been ever so absurd, he should have removed himself.  Instead of that, he went after her into Devonshire.’

‘He went to see other friends, Lady Milborough.’

’I hope it may have been so, I hope it may have been so.  But he should have cut off his hand before he rang at the door of the house in which she was living.  You will understand, my dear, that I acquit your sister altogether.  I did so all through, and said the same to poor Louis when he came to me.  But Colonel Osborne should have known better.  Why did he write to her?  Why did he go to St. Diddulph’s?  Why did he let it be thought that that she was especially his friend.  Oh dear; oh dear; oh dear!  I am afraid he is a very bad man.’

‘We had known him so long, Lady Milborough.’

’I wish you had never known him at all.  Poor Louis!  If be had only done what I told him at first, all might have been well.  “Go to Naples, with your wife,” I said.  “Go to Naples.”  If he had gone to Naples, there would have been no journeys to Siena, no living at Casalunga, no separation.  But he didn’t seem to see it in the same light.  Poor dear Louis.  I wish he had gone to Naples when I told him.’

While they were going backwards and forwards, looking at the cottage at Twickenham and trying to make things comfortable there for the sick man, Lady Milborough hinted to Nora that it might be distasteful to Trevelyan, in his present condition, to have even a sister-in-law staying in the house with him.  There was a little chamber which Nora had appropriated to herself, and at first it seemed to be taken for granted that she should remain there at least till the 10th of August, on which day Lady Peterborough had signified that she and her husband would be ready to receive their visitor.  But Lady Milborough slept on the suggestion, and on the next morning hinted her disapprobation.  ’You shall take them down in the carriage, and their luggage can follow in a cab, but the carriage can bring you back.  You will see how things are then.’

‘Dear Lady Milborough, you would go out of town at once if I left you.’

’And I shall not go out of town if you don’t leave me, What difference does it make to an old woman like me?  I have got no lover coming to look for me, and all I have to do is to tell my daughter-in-law that I shall not be there for another week or so.  Augusta is very glad to have me, but she is the wisest woman in the world, and can get on very well without me.’

‘And as I am the silliest, I cannot.’