"Sit down. I am going to send for a carriage."
Eleanor protested, in vain. Mr. Carlisle sent his groom on to the Lodge with the message, and the heels of the horses were presently clattering in the distance. Eleanor stood still.
"I do not want rest," she insisted. "I am ready to walk home, and able.
I have been resting."
"How long?"
"A long while. I went into Mrs. Williams's cottage and rested there. I would rather go on."
He put her hand upon his arm and turned towards the Lodge, but permitted her after all to move only at the gentlest of rates.
"You will not go out in this way again?" he said; and the words were more an expression of his own will than an enquiry as to hers.
"There is no reason why I should not," Eleanor answered.
"I do not like that you should be walking over moors and taking shelter in cottages, without protection."
"I can protect myself. I know what is due to me."