'No, madam,' was the answer; 'she has been gone this fortnight.'
'Gone! Good heavens! Whither?'
'To Portsmouth, madam. As soon as the news came of the Captain's coming in wounded, Mrs Murray and Miss Arabella set out immediately.'
'And did she leave no letter for me? No instructions?'
The servant's answer convinced me that my arrival was even wholly unexpected. Struck with severe disappointment, overwhelmed with a sense of utter desertedness, my spirits failed; and I sunk back into the carriage faint and forlorn.
'Do you alight here ma'am?' enquired the coachman.
'No!' answered I, scarcely knowing what I said.
'Where do you go next?' asked the man.
I replied only by a bitter passion of tears. 'Alas!' thought I, 'I once, in the mere wilfulness of despair, rejected the blessings of a home and a friend. How righteous is the retribution which leaves me now homeless and friendless!'
'Perhaps, ma'am,' said the servant, seemingly touched by my distress, 'Mrs Murray may have left some message with Mr Henry for you.'