d to him to be ridiculous to upbraid the sufferer.
He was such a piteous sight to behold, that it was almost impossible
to feel indignation against him. "You cannot wonder," said Mr.
Glascock, advancing close to the master of the house, "that the
mother should want to see her only child. You do not wish that your
wife should be the most wretched woman in the world."

"Am not I the most wretched of men? Can anything be more wretched
than this? Is her life worse than mine? And whose fault was it? Had
I any friend to whom she objected? Was I untrue to her in a single
thought?"

"If you say that she was untrue, it is a falsehood," said Sir
Marmaduke.

"You allow yourself a liberty of expression, sir, because you are my
wife's father," said Trevelyan, "which you would not dare to take in
other circumstances."

"I say that it is a false calumny,--a lie! and I would say so to any
man on earth who should dare to slander my child's name."

"Your child, sir! She is my wife;--my wife;--my wife!" Trevelyan, as
he spoke, advanced close up to his father-in-law; and at last hissed
out his words, with his lips close to Sir Marmaduke's face. "Your
right in her is gone, sir. She is mine,--mine,--mine! And you see the
way in which she has treated me, Mr. Glascock. Everything I had was
hers; but the words of a grey-haired sinner were sweeter to her than
all my love. I wonder whether you think that it is a pleasant thing
for such a one as I to come out here and live in such a place as
this? I have not a friend,--a companion,--hardly a book. There is
nothing that I can eat or drink. I do not stir out of the house,--and
I am ill;--very ill! Look at me. See what she has brought me to! Mr.
Glascock, on my honour as a man, I never wronged her in a thought or
a word."

Mr. Glascock had come to think that his best chance of doing any good
was to get Trevelyan into conversation with himself, free from the
interruption of Sir Marmaduke. The father of the injured woman could
not bring himself to endure the hard words that were spoken of his
daughter. During this last speech he had broken out once or twice;
but Trevelyan, not heeding him, had clung to Mr. Glascock's arm. "Sir
Marmaduke," said he, "would you not like to see the boy?"

"He shall not see the boy," said Trevelyan. "You may see him. He
shall not. What is he that he should have control over me?"

"This is the most fearful thing I ever heard of," said Sir Marmaduke.
"What are we t