s; and the upshot of these was, that Lady Rowley and her
daughter determined to start for Willesden without saying anything to
Sir Marmaduke of the purpose they had in hand. When Emily expressed
her conviction that if Trevelyan should be away from home they would
probably be able to make their way into the house,--so as to see the
child, Lady Rowley with some hesitation acknowledged that such might
be the case. But the child's mother said nothing to her own mother of
a scheme which she had half formed of so clinging to her boy that no
human power should separate them.

They started in a cab, as advised by Stanbury, and were driven to a
point on the road from which a lane led down to Willesden, passing by
River's Cottage. They asked as they came along, and met no difficulty
in finding their way. At the point on the road indicated, there was
a country inn for hay-waggoners, and here Lady Rowley proposed that
they should leave their cab, urging that it might be best to call at
the cottage in the quietest manner possible; but Mrs. Trevelyan, with
her scheme in her head for the recapture of their child, begged that
the cab might go on;--and thus they were driven up to the door.

River's Cottage was not a prepossessing abode. It was a new building,
of light-coloured bricks, with a door in the middle and one window
on each side. Over the door was a stone tablet, bearing the
name,--River's Cottage. There was a little garden between the
road and the house, across which there was a straight path to the
door. In front of one window was a small shrub, generally called
a puzzle-monkey, and in front of the other was a variegated laurel.
There were two small morsels of green turf, and a distant view round
the corner of the house of a row of cabbage stumps. If Trevelyan were
living there, he had certainly come down in the world since the days
in which he had occupied the house in Curzon Street. The two ladies
got out of the cab, and slowly walked across the little garden. Mrs.
Trevelyan was dressed in black, and she wore a thick veil. She had
altogether been unable to make up her mind as to what should be her
conduct to her husband should she see him. That must be governed by
circumstances as they might occur. Her visit was made not to him, but
to her boy.

The door was opened before they knocked, and Trevelyan himself was
standing in the narrow passage. Lady Rowley was the first to speak.
"Louis," she said, "I have brought your wif