"Then I am, also, for your sake. What time is it now?"

"Five o'clock, my lady."

"Three hours yet. Tell Mrs. Spicer to come here."

Phoebe locked the trunk she had under her hand and went out to obey.
When Mrs. Spicer came in she was startled by the intelligence that her
lady was going away immediately, and that the house was to be shut up
until the arrival of Mr. Brudenell or his agents, who would arrange for
its future disposition.

When Lady Hurstmonceux had finished these instructions she placed a
liberal sum of money in the housekeeper's hands, with orders to divide
it among the house-servants.

Next she sent for Grainger, the overseer, and having given him the same
information, and put a similar sum of money in his hands for
distribution among the negroes, she dismissed both the housekeeper and
the overseer. Then she enclosed a note for a large amount in a letter
addressed to the pastor of the parish, with a request that he would
appropriate it for the relief of the suffering poor in that
neighborhood. Finally, having completed all her preparations, she took a
cup of tea, bade farewell to her dependents, and, attended by Phoebe,
entered the carriage and was driven to Baymouth, where she posted her
two letters in time for the evening mail, and where the next morning she
took the boat for Baltimore, en route for the North. She stopped in
Baltimore only long enough to arrange business with Mr. Brudenell's
solicitors, and then proceeded to New York, whence, at the end of the