’There would be great difficulty in that, when there is a lady who is to remain unknown,’ said Arabella.  ‘Don’t you think so, Mr Gibson?’ Mr Gibson replied that perhaps there might be a difficulty, but he wasn’t sure.  The difficulty, he thought, might be got over if the ladies did not always occupy the same room.

‘You have never seen Mrs Trevelyan, have you, Miss Stanbury?’ asked Camilla.

‘Never.’

‘She is not an old family friend, then or anything of that sort?’

‘Oh, dear, no.’

‘Because,’ said Arabella, ’it is so odd how different people get together sometimes.’  Then Dorothy explained that Mr Trevelyan and her brother Hugh had long been friends.

‘Oh! of Mr Trevelyan,’ said Camilla.  ’Then it is he that has sent his wife to Nuncombe, not she that has come there?’

‘I suppose there has been some agreement,’ said Dorothy.

‘Just so; just so,’ said Arabella, the meek.  ’I should like to see her.  They say that she is very beautiful; don’t they?’

‘My brother says that she is handsome.’

‘Exceedingly lovely, I’m told,’ said Camilla.  ’I should like to see her shouldn’t you, Mr Gibson?’

‘I always like to see a pretty woman,’ said Mr Gibson, with a polite bow, which the sisters shared between them.

‘I suppose she’ll go to church,’ said Camilla.

‘Very likely not,’ said Arabella.  ’Ladies of that sort very often don’t go to church.  I dare say you’ll find that she’ll never stir out of the place at all, and that not a soul in Nuncombe will ever see her except the gardener.  It is such a thing for a woman to be separated from her husband!  Don’t you think so, Mr Gibson?’

‘Of course it is,’ said he, with a shake of his head, which was intended to imply that the censure of the church must of course attend any sundering of those whom the church had bound together; but which implied also by the absence from it of any intense clerical severity, that as the separated wife was allowed to live with so very respectable a lady as Mrs Stanbury, there must probably be some mitigating circumstances attending this special separation.

‘I wonder what he is like?’ said Camilla, after a pause.

‘Who?’ asked Arabella.

‘The gentleman,’ said Camilla.

‘What gentleman?’ demanded Arabella.

‘I don’t mean Mr Trevelyan,’ said Camilla.

‘I don’t believe there really is eh is there?’ said Mr Gibson, very timidly.

‘Oh, dear, yes,’ said Arabella.

‘I’m afraid there’s something of the kind,’ said Camilla.  ’I’ve heard that there is, and I’ve heard his name.’  Then she whispered very closely into the ear of Mr Gibson the words, ‘Colonel Osborne,’ as though her lips were far too pure to mention aloud any sound so full of iniquity.

‘Indeed!’ said Mr Gibson.

‘But he’s quite an old man,’ said Dorothy, ’and knew her father intimately before she was born.  And, as far as I can understand, her husband does not suspect her in the least.  And it’s only because there’s a misunderstanding between them, and not at all because of the gentleman.’