These few words were said while the men were putting Trevelyan into the carriage.  And then another arrangement was made.  Hugh hired a second cab, in which he and the courier made a part of the procession; and so they all went to Twickenham together.  Hugh had not yet learned that he would be rewarded by coming back alone with Nora in the carriage.

The cottage by the River Thames, which, as far as the party knew, was nameless, was certainly very much better than the house on the top of the hill at Casalunga.  And now, at last, the wife would sleep once more under the same roof with her husband, and the separation would be over.  ‘I suppose that is the Thames,’ said Trevelyan; and they were nearly the only words he spoke in Nora’s hearing that evening.  Before she started on her return journey, the two sisters were together for a few minutes, and each told her own budget of news in short, broken fragments.  There was not much to tell.  ‘He is so weak,’ said Mrs Trevelyan, ’that he can do literally nothing.  He can hardly speak.  When we give him wine, he will say a few words, and his mind seems then to be less astray than it was.  I have told him just simply that it was all my doing, that I have been in fault all through, and every now and then he will say a word, to shew me that he remembers that I have confessed.’

‘My poor Emily!’

’It was better so.  What does it all matter?  He had suffered so, that I would have said worse than that to give him relief.  The pride has gone out of me so, that I do not regard what anybody may say.  Of course, it will be said that I went astray, and that he forgave me.’

’Nobody will say that, dearest; nobody.  Lady Milborough is quite aware how it all was.’

’What does it signify?  There are things in life worse even than a bad name.’

‘But he does not think it?’

’Nora, his mind is a mystery to me.  I do not know what is in it.  Sometimes I fancy that all facts have been forgotten, and that he merely wants the childish gratification of being assured that he is the master.  Then, again, there come moments, in which I feel sure that suspicion is lurking within him, that he is remembering the past, and guarding against the future.  When he came into this house, a quarter of an hour ago, he was fearful lest there was a mad doctor lurking about to pounce on him.  I can see in his eye that he had some such idea.  He hardly notices Louey though there was a time, even at Casalunga, when he would not let the child out of his sight.’

‘What will you do now?’

‘I will try to do my duty, that is all.’

‘But you will have a doctor?’

’Of course.  He was content to see one in Paris, though he would not let me be present.  Hugh saw the gentleman afterwards, and he seemed to think that the body was worse than the mind.’  Then Nora told her the name of a doctor whom Lady Milborough had suggested, and took her departure along with Hugh in the carriage.