s
such a very kind offer! You must accept it,--for Hugh's sake. I have
already said that you would accept it."

"But she will be going out of town."

"She will stay till you can go to Monkhams,--if Emily is not back
before then. She knows all about Emily's affairs; and if she does
come back,--which I doubt, poor thing,--Lady Milborough and you will
be able to judge whether you should go to her." So it was settled,
and Nora's Bohemian Castle in the Air fell into shatters.

The few remaining days before the departure to Southampton passed
quickly, but yet sadly. Sir Marmaduke had come to England expecting
pleasure,--and with that undefined idea which men so employed always
have on their return home that something will turn up which will make
their going back to that same banishment unnecessary. What Governor
of Hong-Kong, what Minister to Bogota, what General of the Forces
at the Gold Coast, ever left the scene of his official or military
labours without a hope, which was almost an expectation, that a
grateful country would do something better for him before the period
of his return should have arrived? But a grateful country was doing
nothing better for Sir Marmaduke, and an ungrateful Secretary of
State at the Colonial Office would not extend the term during which
he could regard himself as absent on special service. How thankful he
had been when first the tidings reached him that he was to come home
at the expense of the Crown, and without diminution of his official
income! He had now been in England for five months, with a per diem
allowance, with his very cabs paid for him, and he was discontented,
sullen, and with nothing to comfort him but his official grievance,
because he could not be allowed to extend his period of special
service more than two months beyond the time at which those special
services were in truth ended! There had been a change of Ministry in
the last month, and he had thought that a Conservative Secretary of
State would have been kinder to him. "The Duke says I can stay three
months with leave of absence;--and have half my pay stopped. I wonder
whether it ever enters into his august mind that even a Colonial
Governor must eat and drink." It was thus he expressed his great
grievance to his wife. "The Duke," however, had been as inexorable
as his predecessor, and Sir Rowley, with his large family, was too
wise to remain to the detriment of his pocket. In the meantime the
clerks in the office, w