that these words were common in the people's mouths,
and explained to her companion how necessary it would be to use these
rumours, to aid her in putting some restraint over her husband even
in this country, should they fail in their effort to take him to
England. She saw the doctor in Siena constantly, and had learned from
him how such steps might be taken. The measure proposed would be
slow, difficult, inefficient, and very hard to set aside, if once
taken;--but still it might be indispensable that something should be
done. "He would be so much worse off here than he would be at home,"
she said;--"if we could only make him understand that it would be
so." Then Stanbury asked about the wine. It seemed that of late
Trevelyan had taken to drink freely, but only of the wine of the
country. But the wine of the country in these parts is sufficiently
stimulating, and Mrs. Trevelyan acknowledged that hence had arisen a
further cause of fear.

They walked up the hill together, and Mrs. Trevelyan, now well
knowing the ways of the place, went round at once to the front
terrace. There he was, seated in his arm-chair, dressed in the same
way as yesterday, dirty, dishevelled, and gaudy with various colours;
but Stanbury could see at once that his mood had greatly changed. He
rose slowly, dragging himself up out of his chair, as they came up to
him, but shewing as he did so,--and perhaps somewhat assuming,--the
impotency of querulous sickness. His wife went to him, and took him
by the hand, and placed him back in his chair. He was weak, he said,
and had not slept, and suffered from the heat; and then he begged her
to give him wine. This she did, half filling for him a tumbler, of
which he swallowed the contents greedily. "You see me very poorly,
Stanbury,--very poorly," he said, seeming to ignore all that had
taken place on the previous day.

"You want change of climate, old fellow," said Stanbury.

"Change of everything;--I want change of everything," he said. "If
I could have a new body and a new mind, and a new soul!"

"The mind and soul, dear, will do well enough, if you will let us
look after the body," said his wife, seating herself on a stool near
his feet. Stanbury, who had settled beforehand how he would conduct
himself, took out a cigar and lighted it;--and then they sat together
silent, or nearly silent, for half an hour. She had said that if Hugh
would do so, Trevelyan would soon become used to the presence of his
o