ot give up the letter, nor indicate by a word
that he would reconsider the question of its propriety. He escaped as
soon as he could from Lady Milborough's room, and almost declared as
he did so, that he would never enter her doors again. She had utterly
failed to see the matter in the proper light. When she talked of
Naples she must surely have been unable to comprehend the extent
of the ill-usage to which he, the husband, had been subjected. How
was it possible that he should live under the same roof with a wife
who claimed to herself the right of receiving visitors of whom he
disapproved,--a visitor,--a gentleman,--one whom the world called her
lover? He gnashed his teeth and clenched his fist as he thought of
his old friend's ignorance of the very first law in a married man's
code of laws.

But yet when he was out in the streets he did not post his letter at
once; but thought of it throughout the whole day, trying to prove
the weight of every phrase that he had used. Once or twice his heart
almost relented. Once he had the letter in his hand, that he might
tear it. But he did not tear it. He put it back into his pocket, and
thought again of his grievance. Surely it was his first duty in such
an emergency to be firm!

It was certainly a wretched life that he was leading. In the evening
he went all alone to an eating-house for his dinner, and then,
sitting with a miserable glass of sherry before him, he again read
and re-read the epistle which he had written. Every harsh word that
it contained was, in some sort, pleasant to his ear. She had hit
him hard, and should he not hit her again? And then, was it not his
bounden duty to let her know the truth? Yes; it was his duty to be
firm.

So he went out and posted the letter.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

GREAT TRIBULATION.

[Illustration]

Trevelyan's letter to his wife fell like a thunderbolt among them at
Nuncombe Putney. Mrs. Trevelyan was altogether unable to keep it to
herself;--indeed she made no attempt at doing so. Her husband had
told her that she was to be banished from the Clock House because her
present hostess was unable to endure her misconduct, and of course
she demanded the reasons of the charge that was thus brought against
her. When she first read the letter, which she did in the presence of
her sister, she towered in her passion.

"Disgraced him! I have never disgraced him. It is he that has
disgraced me. Correspondence! Yes;--he shall see it