‘No,’ shouted Mrs Trevelyan, jumping up from her chair, ’no; he shall never do that.  I will cling to him so that he cannot separate us.  He will never be so wicked, such a monster as that.  I would go about the world saying what a monster he had been to me.’  The passion of the interview was becoming too great for Lady Milborough’s power of moderating it, and she was beginning to feel herself to be in a difficulty.  ‘Lady Milborough,’ continued Mrs Trevelyan, ’tell him from me that I will bear anything but that.  That I will not bear.’

‘Dear Mrs Trevelyan, do not let us talk about it.’

’Who wants to talk about it?  Why do you come here and threaten me with a thing so horrible?  I do not believe you.  He would not dare to separate me and my child.’

‘But you have only to say that you will submit yourself to him.’

’I have submitted myself to him, and I will submit no further.  What does he want?  Why does he send you here?  He does not know what he wants.  He has made himself miserable by an absurd idea, and he wants everybody to tell him that he has been right.  He has been very wrong; and if he desires to be wise now, he will come back to his home, and say nothing further about it.  He will gain nothing by sending messengers here.’

Lady Milborough, who had undertaken a most disagreeable task from the purest motives of old friendship, did not like being called a messenger; but the woman before her was so strong in her words, so eager, and so passionate, that she did not know how to resent the injury.  And there was coming over her an idea, of which she herself was hardly conscious, that after all, perhaps, the husband was not in the right.  She had come there with the general idea that wives, and especially young wives, should be submissive.  She had naturally taken the husband’s part; and having a preconceived dislike to Colonel Osborne, she had been willing enough to think that precautionary measures were necessary in reference to so eminent, and notorious, and experienced a Lothario.  She had never altogether loved Mrs Trevelyan, and had always been a little in dread of her.  But she had thought that the authority with which she would be invested on this occasion, the manifest right on her side, and the undeniable truth of her grand argument, that a wife should obey, would carry her, if not easily, still successfully through all difficulties.  It was probably the case that Lady Milborough when preparing for her visit, had anticipated a triumph.  But when she had been closeted for an hour with Mrs Trevelyan, she found that she was not triumphant.  She was told that she was a messenger, and an unwelcome messenger; and she began to feel that she did not know how she was to take herself away.

‘I am sure I have done everything for the best,’ she said, getting up from her chair.

‘The best will be to send him back, and make him feel the truth.’

’The best for you, my dear, will be to consider well what should be the duty of a wife.’