’I cannot tell you—­something has occurred.  God has got me in his power at last, and is going to scourge me for my bad doings—­that’s what it seems like.  Sol, listen to me, and do exactly what I say.  Go to Anglebury, hire a brougham, bring it on as far as Little Enckworth:  you will have to meet me with it at one of the park gates later in the evening—­probably the west, at half-past seven.  Leave it at the village with the man, come on here on foot, and stay under the trees till just before six:  it will then be quite dark, and you must stand under the projecting balustrade a little further on than the door you came in by.  I will just step upon the balcony over it, and tell you more exactly than I can now the precise time that I shall be able to slip out, and where the carriage is to be waiting.  But it may not be safe to speak on account of his closeness to me—­I will hand down a note.  I find it is impossible to leave the house by daylight—­I am certain to be pursued—­he already suspects something.  Now I must be going, or he will be here, for he watches my movements because of some accidental words that escaped me.’

‘Berta, I shan’t have anything to do with this,’ said Sol.  ’It is not right!’

‘I am only going to Rouen, to Aunt Charlotte!’ she implored.  ’I want to get to Southampton, to be in time for the midnight steamer.  When I am at Rouen I can negotiate with Lord Mountclere the terms on which I will return to him.  It is the only chance I have of rooting out a scandal and a disgrace which threatens the beginning of my life here!  My letters to him, and his to me, can be forwarded through you or through father, and he will not know where I am.  Any woman is justified in adopting such a course to bring her husband to a sense of her dignity.  If I don’t go away now, it will end in a permanent separation.  If I leave at once, and stipulate that he gets rid of her, we may be reconciled.’

’I can’t help you:  you must stick to your husband.  I don’t like them, or any of their sort, barring about three or four, for the reason that they despise me and all my sort.  But, Ethelberta, for all that I’ll play fair with them.  No half-and-half trimming business.  You have joined ’em, and ’rayed yourself against us; and there you’d better bide.  You have married your man, and your duty is towards him.  I know what he is and so does father; but if I were to help you to run away now, I should scorn myself more than I scorn him.’

’I don’t care for that, or for any such politics!  The Mountclere line is noble, and how was I to know that this member was not noble, too?  As the representative of an illustrious family I was taken with him, but as a man—­I must shun him.’

‘How can you shun him?  You have married him!’

’Nevertheless, I won’t stay!  Neither law nor gospel demands it of me after what I have learnt.  And if law and gospel did demand it, I would not stay.  And if you will not help me to escape, I go alone.’