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Not, however, with triumph did she return to her own. The justice of the sensibility which urged her retreat, could not obviate its imprudence, or avert its consequences. She was wholly without friends, without money, without protection, without succour; and the horrour of a licentious pursuit, and the mischiefs menaced by calumniating ill wishers, still made a lonely residence as unsafe as when her first terrour drove her to acquiesce in the proposition of Elinor. Yet, though she could not exult, she could not repent: how desire, how even support a situation so sordid? a situation not only distressing, but oppressive; not merely cruel, but degrading.
She was preparing, therefore, for immediate departure, when she was stopt by a footman, who informed her that Mrs. Ireton demanded to see her without delay.
The expectation of reproach made her hesitate whether to obey this order; but a desire not to have the air of merit-
