to be rid of them that day. How was he to begin?

There was no picking a quarrel with Arnold, and so beginning with _him._
This course of proceeding, in Arnold's position toward Blanche, would
lead to a scandal at the outset--a scandal which would stand in the way
of his making the right impression on Mrs. Glenarm. The woman--lonely
and friendless, with her sex and her position both against her if _she_
tried to make a scandal of it--the woman was the one to begin with.
Settle it at once and forever with Anne; and leave Arnold to hear of it
and deal with it, sooner or later, no matter which.

How was he to break it to her before the day was out?

By going to the inn and openly addressing her to her face as Mrs. Arnold
Brinkworth? No! He had had enough, at Windygates, of meeting her face
to face. The easy way was to write to her, and send the letter, by the
first messenger he could find, to the inn. She might appear afterward at
Windygates; she might follow him to his brother's; she might appeal to
his father. It didn't matter; he had got the whip-hand of her now. "You
are a married woman." There was the one sufficient answer, which was
strong enough to back him in denying any thing!

He made out the letter in his own mind. "Something like this would do,"
he thought, as he went round and round the walnut-tree: "You may be
surprised not to have seen me. You have only yourself to thank for it.
I know what took place between you and him at the inn. I have had a
lawyer's advice. You are Arnold Brinkworth's wife. I wish you joy, and
good-by forever." Address those lines: "To Mrs. Arnold Brinkworth;"
instruct the messenger to leave the letter late that night, without
waiting for an answer; start the first thing the next morning for his