He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope (books you need to read .txt) 📕

RIVER’S COTTAGE

Three days after Hugh Stanbury’s visit to Manchester Street, he wrote a

note to Lady Rowley, telling her of the address at which might be found

both Trevelyan and his son. As Bozzle had acknowledged, facts are

things which may be found out. Hugh had gone to work somewhat after the

Bozzlian fashion, and had found out this fact. ‘He lives at a place

called River’s Cottage, at Willesden,’ wrote Stanbury. ‘If you turn off

the Harrow Road to the right, about a mile beyond the cemetery, you

will find the cottage on the left hand side of the lane, about a

quarter of a mile from the Harrow Road. I believe you can go to

Willesden by railway but you had better take a cab from London.’ There

was much consultation respecting this letter between Lady Rowley and

Mrs Trevelyan, and it was decided that it should not be shown to Sir

Marmaduke. To see her child was at the present moment the most urgent

necessity of the poor mother, and both the ladies felt that Sir

Marmaduke in his wrath might probably impede rather than assist her in

this desire. If told where he might find Trevelyan, he would probably

insist on starting in quest of his son-in-law himself, and the distance

between the mother and her child might become greater in consequence,

instead of less. There were many consultations; and the upshot of these

was, that Lady Rowley and her daughter determined to start for

Willesden without saying anything to Sir Marmaduke of the purpose they

had in hand. When Emily expressed her conviction that if Trevelyan

should be away from home they would probably be able to make their way

into the house so as to see the child, Lady Rowley with some hesitation

acknowledged that such might be the case. But the child’s mother said

nothing to her own mother of a scheme which she had half formed of so

clinging to her boy that no human power should separate them.

They started in a cab, as advised by Stanbury, and were driven to a

point on the road from which a lane led down to Willesden, passing by

River’s Cottage. They asked as they came along, and met no difficulty

in finding their way. At the point on the road indicated, there was a

country inn for hay-waggoners, and here Lady Rowley proposed that they

should leave their cab, urging that it might be best to call at the

cottage in the quietest manner possible; but Mrs Trevelyan, with her

scheme in her head for the recapture of their child, begged that the

cab might go on and thus they were driven up to the door.

River’s Cottage was not a prepossessing abode. It was a new building,

of light-coloured bricks, with a door in the middle and one window on

each side. Over the door was a stone tablet, bearing the name River’s

Cottage. There was a little garden between the road and the house,

across which there was a straight path to the door. In front of one

window was a small shrub, generally called a puzzle-monkey, and in

front of the other was a variegated laurel. There were two small

morsels of green turf, and a distant view round the corner of the house

of a row of cabbage stumps. If Trevelyan were living there, he had

certainly come down in the world since the days in which he had

occupied the house in Curzon Street. The two ladies got out of the cab,

and slowly walked across the little garden. Mrs Trevelyan was dressed

in black, and she wore a thick veil.

She had altogether been unable to make up her mind as to what should be

her conduct to her husband should she see him. That must be governed by

circumstances as they might occur. Her visit was made not to him, but

to her boy.

The door was opened before they knocked, and Trevelyan himself was

standing in the narrow passage.

Lady Rowley was the first to speak. ‘Louis,’ she said, ‘I have brought

your wife to see you.’

‘Who told you that I was here?’ he asked, still standing in the

passage.

‘Of course a mother would find out where was her child,’ said Lady

Rowley.

‘You should not have come here without notice,’ he said. ‘I was careful

to let you know the conditions on which you should come.’

‘You do not mean that I shall not see my child,’ said the mother. ‘Oh,

Louis, you will let me see him.’

Trevelyan hesitated a moment, still keeping his position firmly in the

doorway. By this time an old woman, decently dressed and of comfortable

appearance, had taken her place behind him, and behind her was a slip

of a girl about fifteen years of age. This was the owner of River’s

Cottage and her daughter, and all the inhabitants of the cottage were

now there, standing in the passage. ‘I ought not to let you see him,’

said Trevelyan; ‘you have intruded upon me in coming here! I had not

wished to see you here till you had complied with the order I had given

you.’ What a meeting between a husband and a wife who had not seen each

other now for many months, between a husband and a wife who were still

young enough not to have outlived the first impulses of their early

love! He still stood there guarding the way, and had not even put out

his hand to greet her. He was guarding the way lest she should, without

his permission, obtain access to her own child! She had not removed her

veil, and now she hardly dared to step over the threshold of her

husband’s house. At this moment, she perceived that the woman behind

was pointing to the room on the left, as the cottage was entered, and

Emily at once understood that her boy was there. Then at that moment

she