I am going to be treated as a prisoner, or
that I will not judge myself as to whom I may see, or whom I may not
see, she is very much mistaken." Nora felt that were she to give
information to those ladies in opposition to her sister's wishes,
she would express suspicion on her own part by doing so; and she was
silent. On that same Thursday Priscilla had written her last defiant
letter to her aunt,--that letter in which she had cautioned her aunt
to make no further accusations without being sure of her facts. To
Priscilla's imagination that coming of Lucifer in person, of which
Mrs. Trevelyan had spoken, would hardly have been worse than the
coming of Colonel Osborne. When, therefore, Mrs. Trevelyan declared
the fact on the Thursday evening, vainly endeavouring to speak of
the threatened visit in an ordinary voice, and as of an ordinary
circumstance, it was as though a thunderbolt had fallen upon them.

"Colonel Osborne coming here!" said Priscilla, mindful of the
Stanbury correspondence,--mindful of the evil tongues of the world.

"And why not?" demanded Mrs. Trevelyan, who had heard nothing of the
Stanbury correspondence.

"Oh dear, oh dear!" ejaculated Mrs. Stanbury, who, of course, was
aware of all that had passed between the Clock House and the house in
the Close, though the letters had been written by her daughter.

Nora was determined to stand up for her sister, whatever might be the
circumstances of the case. "I wish Colonel Osborne were not coming,"
said she, "because it makes a foolish fuss; but I cannot understand
how anybody can suppose it to be wrong that Emily should see papa's
very oldest friend in the world."

"But why is he coming?" demanded Priscilla.

"Because he wants to see an acquaintance at Cockchaffington," said
Mrs. Trevelyan; "and there is a wonderful church-door there."

"A church-fiddlestick!" said Priscilla.

The matter was debated throughout all the evening. At one time
there was a great quarrel between the ladies, and then there was a
reconciliation. The point on which Mrs. Trevelyan stood with the
greatest firmness was this,--that it did not become her, as a married
woman whose conduct had always been good and who was more careful as
to that than she was even of her name, to be ashamed to meet any man.
"Why should I not see Colonel Osborne, or Colonel anybody else who
might call here with the same justification for calling which his old
friendship gives him?" Priscilla endeavoure