"I don't think, sister, you are taking the right method of communicating the intelligence to our niece," said Miss Jacky.
"You cannot communicate anything that would give me the least pleasure, unless you could tell me that I was going to leave this place," cried Lady Juliana in a voice of deep despondency.
"Indeed! if it can afford your Ladyship so much pleasure to be at liberty to quit the hospitable mansion of your amiable husband's respectable father," said Miss Jacky, with an inflamed visage and outspread hands, "you are at perfect liberty to depart when you think proper. The generosity, I may say the munificence, of my excellent brother, has now put it in your power to do as you please, and to form your own plans."
"Oh, delightful!" exclaimed Lady Juliana, starting up; "now I shall be quite happy. Where's Harry! Does he know? Is he gone to order the carriage! Can we get away to-day?" And she was flying out of the room when Miss Jacky caught her by one hand, while Miss Grizzy secured the other.
"Oh, pray don't detain me! I must find Harry; and I have all my things to put up," struggling to release herself from the gripe of the sisters; when the door opened, and Harry entered, eager, yet dreading to know the effects of the éclaircissernent. His surprise extreme at beholding his wife, with her eyes sparkling, her cheeks glowing, and her whole countenance expressing extreme pleasure. Darting from her keepers, she bounded towards him with the wildest ejaculations of delight; while he stood alternately gazing at her and his aunts, seeking by his eyes the explanation he feared to demand.
"My dearest Juliana, what is the meaning of all this?" he at length articulated.
"Oh, you cunning thing! So you think I don't know that your father has given you a great, great quantity of money, and that we may go away whenever we please, and do just as we like, and live in London, and—and—oh, delightful!" And she bounded and skipped before the eyes of the petrified spinsters.
"In the name of heaven, what does all this mean?" asked Henry, addressing his aunts, who, for the first time in their lives, were struck dumb by astonishment. But Miss Jacky, at length recollecting herself, turned to Lady Juliana, who was still testifying her delight by a variety of childish but graceful movements, and thus addressed her:
"Permit me to put a few questions to your Ladyship, in presence of those who were witnesses of what has already passed."
"Oh, I can't endure to be asked questions; besides, I have no time to answer them."