CHAPTER XIV.
THE CLOCK HOUSE AT NUNCOMBE PUTNEY.
It was not till a fortnight had passed after the transaction recorded in the last chapter, that Mrs.Trevelyan and Nora Rowley first heard the proposition that they should go to live at Nuncombe Putney.

From bad to worse the quarrel between the husband and the wife had gone on, till Trevelyan had at last told his friend Lady Milborough that he had made up his mind that they must live apart.

"She is so self-willed,--and perhaps I am the same," he had said, "that it is impossible that we should live together." Lady Milborough had implored and called to witness all testimonies, profane and sacred, against such a step,--had almost gone down on her knees.

Go to Naples,--why not Naples?
Or to the quiet town in the west of France, which was so dull that a wicked roaring lion, fond of cities and gambling, and eating and drinking, could not live in such a place! Oh, why not go to the quiet town in the west of France?
Was not anything better than this flying in the face of God and man?
Perhaps Trevelyan did not himself like the idea of the quiet dull French town.

Perhaps he thought that the flying in the face of God and man was all done by his wife, not by him; and that it was right that his wife should feel the consequences.