callous. We had
used all efforts to persuade him to take a change of air--to go to
Royston for a month, and place himself under the care of Dr. Dobie. Mrs.
Temple had even gone so far as to write privately to this physician,
telling him as much of the ease as was prudent, and asking his advice.
Not being aware of the darker sides of my brother's ailment, Dr. Dobie
replied in a less serious strain than seemed to us convenient, but
recommended in any case a complete change of air and scene.

It was, therefore, with no ordinary pleasure and relief that we
heard my brother announce quite unexpectedly one morning in March that
he had made up his mind to seek change, and was going to leave almost
immediately for the Continent. He took his valet Parnham with him, and
quitted Worth one morning before lunch, bidding us an unceremonious
adieu, though he kissed Constance with some apparent tenderness. It was
the first time for three months, she confessed to me afterwards, that
he had shown her even so ordinary a mark of affection; and her wounded
heart treasured up what she hoped would prove a token of returning love.
He had not proposed to take her with him, and even had he done so, we
should have been reluctant to assent, as signs were not wanting that it
might have been imprudent for her to undertake foreign travel at that
period.

For nearly a month we had no word of him. Then he wrote a short note to
Constance from Naples, giving no news, and indeed, scarce speaking of
himself at all, but mentioning as an address to which she might write if
she wished, the Villa de Angelis at Posilipo. Though his letter was cold
and empty, yet Constance was delighted to get it, and wrote henceforth
herself nearly every day, pouring out her heart to him, and retailing
such news as she thought would cheer him.

CHAPTER XI

A month later Mrs. Temple wrote to John warning him of the state in
which Constance now found herself, and begging him to return at least
for a few weeks in order that he might be present at the time of her
confinement. Though it would have been in the last degree unkind, or
even inhuman, that a request of this sort should have been refused, yet
I will confess to you that my brother's recent strangeness had prepared
me for behaviour on his part however wild; and it was with a feeling of
extreme relief that I heard from Mrs. Temple a little later that she had
received a short note from John to say that he was alrea