he believes, dearest."

"You heard what he said. I was to own that I had--sinned."

"Sinned;--yes; because you will not obey him like a slave. That is
sin--to him."

"But I asked him, mamma. Did you not hear me? I could not say
the word plainer,--but I asked him whether he meant that sin.
He must have known, and he would not answer me. And he spoke of
my--transgression. Mamma, if he believed that, he would not let me
come back at all."

"He did not believe it, Emily."

"Could he possibly then so accuse me,--the mother of his child! If
his heart be utterly hard and false towards me, if it is possible
that he should be cruel to me with such cruelty as that,--still he
must love his boy. Why did he not answer me, and say that he did not
think it?"

"Simply because his reason has left him."

"But if he be mad, mamma, ought we to leave him like that? And, then,
did you see his eyes, and his face, and his hands? Did you observe
how thin he is,--and his back, how bent? And his clothes,--how they
were torn and soiled. It cannot be right that he should be left like
that."

"We will tell papa when we get home," said Lady Rowley, who was
herself beginning to be somewhat frightened by what she had seen.
It is all very well to declare that a friend is mad when one simply
desires to justify one's self in opposition to that friend;--but
the matter becomes much more serious when evidence of the friend's
insanity becomes true and circumstantial. "I certainly think that a
physician should see him," continued Lady Rowley. On their return
home Sir Marmaduke was told of what had occurred, and there was a
long family discussion in which it was decided that Lady Milborough
should be consulted, as being the oldest friend of Louis Trevelyan
himself with whom they were acquainted. Trevelyan had relatives of
his own name living in Cornwall; but Mrs. Trevelyan herself had never
even met one of that branch of the family.

Sir Marmaduke, however, resolved that he himself would go out and
see his son-in-law. He too had called Trevelyan mad, but he did not
believe that the madness was of such a nature as to interfere with
his own duties in punishing the man who had ill used his daughter. He
would at any rate see Trevelyan himself;--but of this he said nothing
either to his wife or to his child.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

MAJOR MAGRUDER'S COMMITTEE.

[Illustration]

Sir Marmaduke could not go out to Willesden on the morning after La