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 give way.
How could a disgraced and ruined man, broken in health and spirits, contest the mere details of life with a high-spirited woman ten years his junior?
The Earl wanted to go to London, and remain there at least a week, but this her ladyship strenuously opposed.

He must see his lawyer, he urged; there were steps to be taken which could be taken only under legal advice--counsel to be retained.

If this lying invention of Satan were really destined to take the form of a public trial, he must be prepared to fight his foes on their own ground.
'You can make all your preparations at Fellside,' answered his wife, resolutely.