Yet to this it was necessary to submit, or incur the only penalty
which, to such a mind, would be more severe, self-reproach: she had
promised to be governed by Mrs Delvile, she had nothing, therefore, to
do but obey her.

Yet _to turn_, as he expressed himself, _from the door_, a man who, but
for an incident the most incomprehensible, would now have been sole
master of herself and her actions, seemed so unkind and so tyrannical,
that she could not endure to be within hearing of his repulse: she
begged, therefore, the use of Mrs Charlton's carriage, and determined
to make a visit to Mrs Harrel till Delvile and his mother had wholly
quitted Bury. She was not, indeed, quite satisfied in going to the
house of Mr Arnott, but she had no time to weigh objections, and knew
not any other place to which still greater might not be started.

She wrote a short letter to Mrs Delvile, acquainting her with her
purpose, and its reason, and repeating her assurances that she would be
guided by her implicitly; and then, embracing Mrs Charlton, whom she
left to the care of her grand-daughters, she got into a chaise,
accompanied only by her maid, and one man and horse, and ordered the
postilion to drive to Mr Arnott's.



CHAPTER v.

A COTTAGE.

The evening was already far advanced, and before she arrived at the end
of her little journey it was quite dark. When they came within a mile