y didn't you write? Priscilla, what is there in the house that he
can eat?"

"Plenty of bread and cheese," said Priscilla, laughing, with her hand
inside her brother's arm. For though Priscilla hated all other men,
she did not hate her brother Hugh. "If you wanted things nice to eat
directly you got here, you ought to have written."

"I shall want my dinner, like any other Christian,--in due time,"
said Hugh. "And how is Mrs. Trevelyan,--and how is Miss Rowley?"

He soon found himself in company with those two ladies, and
experienced some immediate difficulty in explaining the cause of his
sudden coming. But this was soon put aside by Mrs. Trevelyan.

"When did you see my husband?" she asked.

"I saw him yesterday. He was quite well."

"Colonel Osborne has been here," she said.

"I know that he has been here. I met him at the station at Exeter.
Perhaps I should not say so, but I wish he had remained away."

"We all wish it," said Priscilla.

Then Nora spoke. "But what could we do, Mr. Stanbury? It seemed so
natural that he should call when he was in the neighbourhood. We have
known him so long; and how could we refuse to see him?"

"I will not let any one think that I'm afraid to see any man on
earth," said Mrs. Trevelyan. "If he had ever in his life said a word
that he should not have said, a word that would have been an insult,
of course it would have been different. But the notion of it is
preposterous. Why should I not have seen him?"

"I think he was wrong to come," said Hugh.

"Of course he was wrong;--wickedly wrong," said Priscilla.

Stanbury, finding that the subject was openly discussed between
them, declared plainly the mission that had brought him to Nuncombe.
"Trevelyan heard that he was coming, and asked me to let him know the
truth."

"Now you can tell him the truth," said Mrs. Trevelyan, with something
of indignation in her tone, as though she thought that Stanbury had
taken upon himself a task of which he ought to be ashamed.

"But Colonel Osborne came specially to pay a visit to
Cockchaffington," said Nora, "and not to see us. Louis ought to know
that."

"Nora, how can you demean yourself to care about such trash?" said
Mrs. Trevelyan. "Who cares why he came here? His visit to me was a
thing of course. If Mr. Trevelyan disapproves of it, let him say so,
and not send secret messengers."

"Am I a secret messenger?" said Hugh Stanbury.

"There has been a man here, inquiring of the s