‘It is a tremendous undertaking for one who has travelled so little,’ she wrote; ‘for you know, dear Vernon, how my devotion to Lina and your interests kept me a prisoner at South Hill during those years in which I should naturally have been seeing all that is worth seeing in this beautiful world. It is an awful idea to travel all the way from Warwickshire to Lake Leman, with only a maid, but I feel that this is a golden opportunity which must not be lost. To be in Switzerland with you and dearest Lina will be a delight, the memory of which will endure all my life. It is quite hopeless to suppose that dear Marmaduke can ever travel with me beyond Cheltenham, or Bath, or Torquay. His health and his settled habits both forbid the thought. Why, then, should I not take advantage of your being in Switzerland to realise a long-cherished wish? I shall be no trouble to you: I do not ask you even to receive me under your roof, unless indeed you happen to have a spare room or two at your disposal. You can make arrangements for me and my maid to live _en pension_ at one of those excellent hotels which I am told abound on the banks of the lake, and I can spend all my days with you without feeling myself either a burden or an expense.’ ‘What are we to do, Lina?’ asked Sir Vernon, when his elder daughter had read the letter; ‘your aunt will be a terrible bore in any case, but I suppose she will be a little less of a nuisance if we put her out of the house.’ ‘There are three spare rooms,’ said Lina. ‘It would be rather inhospitable to send her to an hotel—if she will not be any trouble to you, dear father——’ ‘Oh, she will be no trouble to me,’ said Sir Vernon. ‘I’ll take care of that.’ ‘Then I think you had better let me write and ask her to stay with us.’ ‘Ask her!’ quoth Sir Vernon, ‘egad, she has asked herself.’ The letter was written, and by return of post there came a gushing reply, announcing that Mrs. Ferrers had broken the intelligence of her departure to dear Marmaduke, who had borne the blow better than might have been expected, and who was amiably resigned to the loss of his wife’s society during the ensuing six weeks. Is not a modern Anglican cleric bound to imitate in somewise the example of the early Christian martyrs? Fire or sword he is not called upon to suffer, nor to fight with wild beasts in the arena; but these small domestic deprivations are a scourge of the flesh, which tend to exercise his heroic temper. ‘Todd,’ said Marmaduke, in a fat and unctuous voice, ‘you must take particular care of me while your mistress is away. You know what I like, Todd, and you must make sure that I have it.’ * * * * * Mrs. Ferrers arrived one sunny afternoon, with three Saratoga trunks, and the newest things in sunshades. She had a generally exhausted air after her journey, and declared that she seemed to have been travelling since the beginning of the world.