Colonel Osborne did not himself believe even so much as this, but he did believe that Mrs.Trevelyan had been banished to some inhospitable region, to some dreary comfortless abode, of which, as the wife of a man of fortune, she would have great ground to complain.

So thinking, he did not probably declare to himself that a divorce should be obtained, and that, in such event, he would marry the lady,--but ideas came across his mind in that direction.

Trevelyan was a cruel Bluebeard; Emily,--as he was studious to call Mrs.Trevelyan,--was a dear injured saint.

And as for himself, though he acknowledged to himself that the lumbago pinched him now and again, so that he could not rise from his chair with all the alacrity of youth, yet, when he walked along Pall Mall with his coat properly buttoned, he could not but observe that a great many young women looked at him with admiring eyes.
It was thus with no settled scheme that the Colonel went to work, and made inquiries, and ascertained Mrs.Trevelyan's address in Devonshire.

When he learned it, he thought that he had done much; though, in truth, there had been no secrecy in the matter.