The servant brought it to his mistress, and she, when she had looked at it, put it down by her plate.

Trevelyan knew immediately from whom the letter had come, and understood how impossible it was for his wife to give it up in the servant's presence.

The letter lay there till the man was out of the room, and then she handed it to Nora.

"Will you give that to Louis ?" she said.

"It comes from the man whom he supposes to be my lover." "Emily!" said he, jumping from his seat, "how can you allow words so horrible and so untrue to fall from your mouth ?" "If it be not so, why am I to be placed in such a position as this?
The servant knows, of course, from whom the letter comes, and sees that I have been forbidden to open it." Then the man returned to the room, and the remainder of the dinner passed off almost in silence.
It was their custom when they dined without company to leave the dining-room together, but on this evening Trevelyan remained for a few minutes that he might read Colonel Osborne's letter.