'I shall never be any better,' said Lord Maulevrier, testily; 'that
infernal climate has shattered my constitution.'

'Two or three months of perfect rest and good nursing will make a new
man of you. I have arranged that we shall go straight from here to
Fellside. No one can plague you there with that disguised impertinence
called sympathy. You can give all your thoughts to the ordeal before
you, and be ready to meet your accusers. Fortunately, you have no Burke
against you.'

'Fellside? You think of going to Fellside?'

'Yes. You know how fond I am of that place. I little thought when you
settled it upon me--a cottage in Westmoreland with fifty acres of garden
and meadow--so utterly insignificant--that I should ever like it better
than any of your places.'

'A charming retreat in summer; but we have never wintered there? What
put it into your head to go there at such a season as this? Why, I
daresay the snow is on the tops of the hills already.'

'It is the only place I know where you will not be watched and talked
about,' replied Lady Maulevrier. 'You will be out of the eye of the
world. I should think that consideration would weigh more with you than
two or three degrees of the thermometer.'

'I detest cold,' said the Earl, 'and in my weak health----'

'We will take care of you,' answered her ladyship; and in the discussion
which followed she bore herself so firmly that her husband was fain to