could to foster Trevelyan's stupid
jealousy."

"He has changed his mind about that, I think."

"Perhaps he has; but he behaved very badly then. Let him shew up his
income;--that, I take it, is the question in such a case as this. His
father was a clergyman, and therefore I suppose he must be considered
to be a gentleman. But has he means to support a wife, and keep up a
house in London? If he has not, that is an end to it, I should say."

But Sir Marmaduke could not see his way to any such end, and,
although he still looked black upon Nora, and talked to his wife
of his determination to stand no contumacy, and hinted at cursing,
disinheriting, and the like, he began to perceive that Nora would
have her own way. In his unhappiness he regretted this visit to
England, and almost thought that the Mandarins were a pleasanter
residence than London. He could do pretty much as he pleased there,
and could live quietly, without the trouble which encountered him now
on every side.

Nora, immediately on her return to London, had written a note to
Hugh, simply telling him of her arrival and begging him to come and
see her. "Mamma," she said, "I must see him, and it would be nonsense
to say that he must not come here. I have done what I have said
I would do, and you ought not to make difficulties." Lady Rowley
declared that Sir Marmaduke would be very angry if Hugh were admitted
without his express permission. "I don't want to do anything in the
dark," continued Nora, "but of course I must see him. I suppose it
will be better that he should come to me than that I should go to
him?" Lady Rowley quite understood the threat that was conveyed in
this. It would be much better that Hugh should come to the hotel, and
that he should be treated then as an accepted lover. She had come to
that conclusion. But she was obliged to vacillate for awhile between
her husband and her daughter. Hugh came of course, and Sir Marmaduke,
by his wife's advice, kept out of the way. Lady Rowley, though she
was at home, kept herself also out of the way, remaining above with
her two other daughters. Nora thus achieved the glory and happiness
of receiving her lover alone.

"My own true girl!" he said, speaking with his arms still round her
waist.

"I am true enough; but whether I am your own,--that is another
question."

"You mean to be?"

"But papa doesn't mean it. Papa says that you are nobody, and that
you haven't got an income; and thinks that I h