and baby, was established at the Clock House, under the protection of Mrs Stanbury.  Mrs Trevelyan had brought down her own maid and her own nurse, and had found that the arrangements made by her husband had, in truth, been liberal.  The house in Curzon Street had been given up, the furniture had been sent to a warehouse, and Mr Trevelyan had gone into lodgings.  ’There never were two young people so insane since the world began,’ said Lady Milborough to her old friend, Mrs Fairfax, when the thing was done.

‘They will be together again before next April,’ Mrs Fairfax had replied.  But Mrs Fairfax was a jolly dame who made the best of everything.  Lady Milborough raised her hands in despair and shook her head.  ’I don’t suppose, though, that Mr Glascock will go to Devonshire after his lady love,’ said Mrs Fairfax.  Lady Milborough again raised her hands, and again shook her head.

Mrs Stanbury had given an easy assent when her son proposed to her this new mode of life, but Priscilla had had her doubts.  Like all women, she thought that when a man was to be separated from his wife, the woman must he in the wrong.  And though it must be doubtless comfortable to go from the cottage to the Clock House, it would, she said, with much prudence, be very uncomfortable to go back from the Clock House to the cottage.  Hugh replied very cavalierly generously, that is, rashly, and somewhat impetuously that he would guarantee them against any such degradation.

‘We don’t want to be a burden upon you, my dear,’ said the mother.

‘You would be a great burden on me,’ he replied, ’if you were living uncomfortably while I am able to make you comfortable.’

Mrs Stanbury was soon won over by Mrs Trevelyan, by Nora, and especially by the baby; and even Priscilla, after a week or two, began to feel that she liked their company.  Priscilla was a young woman who read a great deal, and even had some gifts of understanding what she read.  She borrowed books from the clergyman, and paid a penny a week to the landlady of the Stag and Antlers for the hire during half a day of the weekly newspaper.  But now there came a box of books from Exeter, and a daily paper from London, and to improve all this both the new corners were able to talk with her about the things she read.  She soon declared to her mother that she liked Miss Rowley much the best of the two.  Mrs Trevelyan was too fond of having her own way.  She began to understand, she would say to her mother, that a man might find it difficult to live with Mrs Trevelyan.  ’She hardly ever yields about anything,’ said Priscilla.  As Miss Priscilla Stanbury was also very fond of having her own way, it was not surprising that she should object to that quality in this lady, who had come to live under the same roof with her.