Off started Owen with a piece of bread and butter in his hand.
'Mother, why don't you make that girl more regular?' asked Mr Prothero.
'Oh, David! you know she doesn't mind me.'
'Then you should make her.'
Mrs Prothero could have said, 'You should have helped me to make her all her life,' but she refrained.
'Can't find her,' cried Owen, returning.
'Perhaps she is ill upstairs,' suggested Mrs Prothero, rising, and running up to her room.
The room was empty, as we know, and Mrs Prothero was about to leave it again, when she went to the open window to see if she could espy Netta from it. She passed the dressing-table as she did so, and perceiving a letter, glanced at the direction. She was surprised to find it addressed to herself, and on a nearer examination saw that it was in Netta's handwriting. It was with a trembling hand and foreboding heart that she took it up and broke the seal After she had done this, she was some time before she could summon courage to open it. When she did so, her brain swam as she read the following words, written with trembling fingers:—
'DEAR MOTHER,—I am going to marry cousin Howel. Father won't consent, so we are going to London to be married. I hope you will forgive me for not telling you, but I knew it was no good, as father is so much against it. I am sure I shall be very happy, only I should like to have been married properly at home; but it is not my fault that father would not hear of it, and that Howel would not wait. We are going to France and a great many other countries, and it grieves me to think how long it will be before I shall see you again. I hope you and father will forgive me? as Howel is a gentleman with plenty of money, and we have loved one another all our lives. I don't see why we were not allowed to marry like anybody else, instead of being obliged to go so far away; I am sure it would have been better if father had let us. Dear mother, you were always very good to me, and I am sorry if I ever offended you; but father called me bad names, and was very cross; he will be vexed, perhaps, when he sees how grand and happy I am.
'Good-bye for a little time, my dear mother. Don't be very angry with your dutiful, affectionate daughter, JANETTA.'
The word 'dutiful' was scratched through and affectionate added.