My hysterical state had made me far less combative
than I might have proved some months since, for there was much that was
insulting as well as formidable in his manner. I completed my letter,
however, to his satisfaction in the prescribed time; and he said, as he
laid it and its envelope on the table--
'Please to remember that this lady is not your attendant only, but that she
has authority to direct every detail respecting your journey, and will make
all the necessary payments on the way. You will please, then, implicitly to
comply with her directions. The carriage awaits you at the hall-door.'
Having thus spoken, with another grim bow, and 'I wish you a safe and
pleasant journey,' he receded a step or two, and I, with an undefinable
kind of melancholy, though also with a sense of relief, withdrew.
My letter, I afterwards found, reached Lady Knollys, accompanied by one
from Uncle Silas, who said--'Dear Maud apprises me that she has written
to tell you something of our movements. A sudden crisis in my miserable
affairs compels a break-up as sudden here. Maud joins my daughter at the
Pension, in France.
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