lowing bowl
with any touch of joviality. It was generally used for such purposes
as that to which it was now appropriated, and no doubt had been
taken by Bozzle on more than one previous occasion. Here Lady Rowley
arrived precisely at the hour fixed, and was told that the gentleman
was waiting up-stairs for her.

There had, of course, been many family consultations as to the manner
in which this meeting should be arranged. Should Sir Marmaduke
accompany his wife;--or, perhaps, should Sir Marmaduke go alone? Lady
Rowley had been very much in favour of meeting Mr. Trevelyan without
any one to assist her in the conference. As for Sir Marmaduke, no
meeting could be concluded between him and his son-in-law without a
personal, and probably a violent quarrel. Of that Lady Rowley had
been quite sure. Sir Marmaduke, since he had been home, had, in the
midst of his various troubles, been driven into so vehement a state
of indignation against his son-in-law as to be unable to speak of
the wretched man without strongest terms of opprobrium. Nothing was
too bad to be said by him of one who had ill-treated his dearest
daughter. It must be admitted that Sir Marmaduke had heard only
one side of the question. He had questioned his daughter, and had
constantly seen his old friend Osborne. The Colonel's journey down
to Devonshire had been made to appear the most natural proceeding
in the world. The correspondence of which Trevelyan thought so much
had been shown to consist of such notes as might pass between any
old gentleman and any young woman. The promise which Trevelyan had
endeavoured to exact, and which Mrs. Trevelyan had declined to give,
appeared to the angry father to be a monstrous insult. He knew that
the Colonel was an older man than himself, and his Emily was still to
him only a young girl. It was incredible to him that anybody should
have regarded his old comrade as his daughter's lover. He did not
believe that anybody had, in truth, so regarded the man. The tale had
been a monstrous invention on the part of the husband, got up because
he had become tired of his young wife. According to Sir Marmaduke's
way of thinking, Trevelyan should either be thrashed within an inch
of his life, or else locked up in a mad-house. Colonel Osborne shook
his head, and expressed a conviction that the poor man was mad.

But Lady Rowley was more hopeful. Though she was as confident about
her daughter as was the father, she was less confident a