‘I suppose that he is very angry,’ Mrs Trevelyan said to her sister, ’but I do not feel that I care about that now.  He shall have nothing to complain of in reference to any gaiety on my part.  I will see no one.  I will have no correspondence.  But I will not remain here, after what he has said to me, let him be ever so angry.  I declare, as I think of it, it seems to me that no woman was ever so cruelly treated as I have been.’  Then she wrote one further line to her husband.

’Not having received any orders from you, and having promised Mrs Stanbury that I would leave this house on Monday, I go with Nora to my aunt, Mrs Outhouse, to-morrow.

E. T.’

On the Sunday evening the four ladies drank tea together, and they all made an effort to be civil, and even affectionate, to each other.  Mrs Trevelyan had at last allowed Priscilla to explain how it had come to pass that she had told her brother that it would be better both for her mother and for herself that the existing arrangements should be brought to an end, and there had come to be an agreement between them that they should all part in amity.  But the conversation on the Sunday evening was very difficult.

’I am sure we shall always think of you both with the greatest kindness,’ said Mrs Stanbury.

‘As for me,’ said Priscilla, ’your being with us has been a delight that I cannot describe, only it has been wrong.’

‘I know too well,’ said Mrs Trevelyan, ’that in our present circumstances we are unable to carry delight with us anywhere.’

‘You hardly understand what our life has been,’ said Priscilla; ’but the truth is that we had no right to receive you in such a house as this.  It has not been our way of living, and it cannot continue to be so.  It is not wonderful that people should talk of us.  Had it been called your house, it might have been better.’

‘And what will you do now?’ asked Nora.

’Get out of this place as soon as we can.  It is often hard to go back to the right path; but it may always be done or at least attempted.’

‘It seems to me that I take misery with me wherever I go,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

‘My dear, it has not been your fault,’ said Mrs Stanbury.

‘I do not like to blame my brother,’ said Priscilla, ’because he has done his best to be good to us all and the punishment will fall heaviest upon him, because he must pay for it.’

‘He should not be allowed to pay a shilling,’ said Mrs Trevelyan.

Then the morning came, and at seven o’clock the two sisters, with the nurse and child, started for Lessboro’ Station in Mrs Crocket’s open carriage, the luggage having been sent on in a cart.  There were many tears shed, and any one looking at the party would have thought that very dear friends were being torn asunder.

‘Mother,’ said Priscilla, as soon as the parlour door was shut, and the two were alone together, ’we must take care that we never are brought again into such a mistake as that.  They who protect the injured should be strong themselves.’