d once been a clock upon it. This house
had been lately vacated, and Hugh informed his sister that he was
thinking of taking it for his mother's accommodation. Now, the
late occupants of the Clock House, at Nuncombe Putney, had been
people with five or six hundred a year. Had other matters been in
accordance, the house would almost have entitled them to consider
themselves as county people. A gardener had always been kept
there,--and a cow!

"The Clock House for mamma!"

"Well, yes. Don't say a word about it as yet to Aunt Stanbury, as
she'll think that I've sold myself altogether to the old gentleman."

"But, Hugh, how can mamma live there?"

"The fact is, Dorothy, there is a secret. I can't tell you quite
yet. Of course, you'll know it, and everybody will know it, if the
thing comes about. But as you won't talk, I will tell you what most
concerns ourselves."

"And am I to go back?"

"Certainly not,--if you will take my advice. Stick to your aunt. You
don't want to smoke pipes, and wear Tom-and-Jerry hats, and write for
the penny newspapers."

Now Hugh Stanbury's secret was this;--that Louis Trevelyan's wife and
sister-in-law were to leave the house in Curzon Street, and come and
live at Nuncombe Putney, with Mrs. Stanbury and Priscilla. Such, at
least, was the plan to be carried out, if Hugh Stanbury should be
successful in his present negotiations.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HONOURABLE MR. GLASCOCK.

[Illustration]

By the end of July Mrs. Trevelyan with her sister was established in
the Clock House, at Nuncombe Putney, under the protection of Hugh's
mother; but before the reader is made acquainted with any of the
circumstances of their life there, a few words must be said of an
occurrence which took place before those two ladies left Curzon
Street.

As to the quarrel between Trevelyan and his wife things went from bad
to worse. Lady Milborough continued to interfere, writing letters
to Emily which were full of good sense, but which, as Emily said
herself, never really touched the point of dispute. "Am I, who am
altogether unconscious of having done anything amiss, to confess that
I have been in the wrong? If it were about a small matter, I would
not mind, for the sake of peace. But when it concerns my conduct in
reference to another man I would rather die first." That had been
Mrs. Trevelyan's line of thought and argument in the matter; but
then old Lady Milborough in her letters spoke only of