Prudence followed them up the stairs, but stopped for a moment outside Georgiana’s anteroom, to give oral expression to her feelings: “Marry Mr. Thornby! Oh, lor! What will the Jacumbite say to this, I wonder?”
CHAPTER XIII
SURPRISES
Left alone in the dining-room, Foxwell first indulged in a momentary smile of satisfaction, as who should say, “For once has circumstance been kind to me;” and then, setting himself to the task yet remaining, he opened the library door, and called Everell.
The young man came without delay; looked swiftly around the room, and then at Foxwell with eyes that said, “She is not here!”
“She has gone to her room,” said Foxwell, very quietly. “I have granted her request: you are to go free.”
“Go free!”
“At her solicitation, and solely for her sake. For her sake, then, and for mine, too, if you consider not your own, I beg you will be secret in your departure—and above all, speedy. You must be especially on your guard against Jeremiah Filson, who still lodges at the public-house in the village yonder. Were I in your place, I wouldn’t pass through the village, I would go to Burndale and take conveyance there. But however you proceed, though I may seem inhospitable to urge it, you should set out immediately. You have money, I believe: if not, my purse—though I could wish it better lined—”
“Nay, a thousand thanks, but I have enough. As to this release, I know not what to say: I never would have asked it—”
“But you must accept it, for the sake of her who did ask it. I well know you would have stood to our compact. Stay not for protestations or thanks: the sooner you are gone, the better for us all.”