“No, do as I bid you!”
“Yes, but where do you go, Ned?”
“I am going to Eustace, of course, to try what I can do to untangle this coil.”
“Well, I think I should come with you. For, after all—”
“You would be very much in the way. Make your bow to Miss Rochdale, and be off!”
He was obeyed, but reluctantly. As the door closed behind him Carlyon turned to Elinor and said without preamble, “It is a fortunate circumstance that you were here. I fancy I have no need to explain to you that the man now lying at Wisborough Green is my cousin?”
“Indeed, no! I had collected that he must be the man I was supposed to be going to marry.”
“He is the man you are going to marry,” he replied, with decision.
She stared at him. “What can you possibly mean?”
“You heard my brother: Cheviot is not yet dead. If we can reach Wisborough Green while he still breathes and is in possession of his senses, you may be married to him, and he may leave his estate away from me. Come, I have no time to lose!”