at no
trouble was too great to be incurred, even though the probability of
success might not be great.

It must not, however, be supposed that Lady Rowley carried off all
the family to Italy, including Sir Marmaduke, simply in chase of
Mr. Glascock. Anxious as she was on the subject, she was too proud,
and also too well-conditioned, to have suggested to herself such a
journey with such an object. Trevelyan had escaped from Willesden
with the child, and they had heard,--again through Stanbury,--that
he had returned to Italy. They had all agreed that it would be well
that they should leave London for awhile, and see something of
the Continent; and when it was told to them that little Louis was
probably in Florence, that alone was reason enough for them to go
thither. They would go to the city till the heat was too great and
the mosquitoes too powerful, and then they would visit the baths
of Lucca for a month. This was their plan of action, and the cause
for their plan; but Lady Rowley found herself able to weave into it
another little plan of her own of which she said nothing to anybody.
She was not running after Mr. Glascock; but if Mr. Glascock should
choose to run after them,--or her, who could say that any harm had
been done?

Nora had answered that proposition of her lover's to walk out of the
house in Manchester Street, and get married at the next church, in a
most discreet manner. She had declared that she would be true and
firm, but that she did not wish to draw upon herself the displeasure
of her father and mother. She did not, she said, look upon a
clandestine marriage as a happy resource. But,--this she added at the
end of a long and very sensible letter,--she intended to abide by her
engagement, and she did not intend to go back to the Mandarins. She
did not say what alternative she would choose in the event of her
being unable to obtain her father's consent before his return. She
did not suggest what was to become of her when Sir Marmaduke's leave
of absence should be expired. But her statement that she would not go
back to the islands was certainly made with more substantial vigour,
though, perhaps, with less of reasoning, than any other of the
propositions made in her letter. Then, in her postscript, she told
him that they were all going to Italy. "Papa and mamma think that we
ought to follow poor Mr. Trevelyan. The lawyer says that nothing can
be done while he is away with the boy. We are therefore all