She led her youngest daughter to the stairs as she spoke, quite failing to perceive that Cecilia, to whom Dassett had silently handed Sophy’s note, was not attending to a word she said. Under the butler’s interested gaze, Cecilia, reading the letter in the blankest amazement, had turned alarmingly pale. She looked up as she reached the end, and started forward, her lips parted, as though she would have recalled her mother. She recollected herself in a moment and tried to be calm. But the hands with which she folded Sophy’s letter shook perceptibly, and her whole appearance was that of one who had sustained a severe shock. Miss Wraxton observed it and moved toward her, saying solicitously, “You are not quite well, I am afraid! You have not received bad news?”

Dassett, whose fingers had itched to break open the wafer that sealed Sophy’s letter, coughed, and said disinterestedly, “Will Miss Stanton-Lacy be returning to town this evening, miss? Her abigail is in quite a taking, miss, not having had any notion that miss was going into the country.”

Cecilia looked at him in rather a dazed way, but pulled herself together sufficiently to reply with tolerable composure, “Yes, I think so. Oh, yes, certainly she will come back tonight!”

If this answer failed to gratify Dassett’s thirst for knowledge, it at least made Miss Wraxton prick up her ears. Taking Cecilia’s arm, she led her toward the library, saying in her well-modulated voice, “The drive has fatigued you. Be so good, Dassett, as to bring a glass of water to the library, and some smelling salts! Miss Rivenhall is feeling a trifle faint.”

Cecilia, whose constitution was not strong, was indeed feeling faint, and could only be grateful when obliged to lie down upon the sofa in the library. Miss Wraxton deftly removed her pretty bonnet and began to chafe her hands, abstracting from one of them the note which Cecilia was feebly clutching. Dassett soon came in with the desired requirements, which Miss Wraxton took from him with a calm word of thanks and of dismissal. The faintness, which had only been momentary, was already passing off, and Cecilia was able to sit up, to sip the water, and to refresh herself with a few sniffs at the pungent smelling bottle. Miss Wraxton, meanwhile, in the most assured manner possible, had picked up Sophy’s letter, and was making herself mistress of its contents.

“You wondered, dearest Cecy, why, at the last, I would not accompany you to Richmond. Let this note be my explanation! I have thought long over the unfortunate situation in which you are placed, and I see only one way to put an end to the distress you have been made to suffer through my uncle’s implacable determination to see you married to C. I believe him to have been strengthened in this resolve by C. himself, but I will not pain you by writing more on this subject. Were C. removed I cannot but believe that my uncle must soon relent toward F.

“Charles will tell you that we have quarreled. While the original fault I must own to have been mine, his manner to me, the language he held — so violent, so uncontrolled! — make it impossible for me to remain any longer under this roof. I am removing immediately to Lacy Manor and have prevailed upon C. to be my escort. Trust me to make it impossible for him to leave Lacy Manor tonight! He is a gentleman, and although his heart can never be mine, his hand I am persuaded he must offer me, and you may be easy at last.

“Do not fear for me! You are aware of my wish to establish myself, and although my affections are no more engaged than C.’s, and I must shrink from the means his indifference forces me to employ, I daresay we shall contrive to rub along tolerably together. If I can be of assistance to you in this way, my dearest Cousin, I shall have my reward. Ever your devoted Sophy.”

“Good God!” exclaimed Miss Wraxton, startled out of her calm. “Is this possible? Bad though I have thought her conduct, I would not have believed that she could have gone to such lengths as this! Unhappy girl! There is not a word of contrition! No breath of shame! My poor Cecilia, I do not wonder that you should find yourself overcome! You have been wretchedly deceived!”

“Oh, what are you about?” Cecilia cried, starting up. “Eugenia, you had no right to read my letter! Give it to me at once, if you please, and never dare to mention its contents to a living soul!”

Miss Wraxton handed it to her, but said, “Rather than have me summon Lady Ombersley to you I thought you would prefer that I should discover what had so much upset you. As for not mentioning the contents, I imagine this news must be all over London by tomorrow! I do not know when I have been so much shocked!”

“All over London! No, that it shall not be!” Cecilia said vehemently. “Sophy — Charlbury! It cannot, must not be! I shall set out for Ashtead immediately. How could she do such a thing? How could she? It is all her goodness — her wish to help me, but how dare she go off with Charlbury?” She tried to read the letter again, but crumpled it in her hand, shuddering. “A quarrel with Charles! Oh, but she must know he does not mean the things he says when he is in a rage! She does know it! He shall go with me to fetch her home! Where is he? Someone must go at once to White’s!”

Miss Wraxton, who had been thinking, laid a detaining hand on her arm. “Pray calm yourself, Cecilia! Consider a little! If your unfortunate cousin has quarreled so bitterly with Charles, very likely his going could only do more harm than good. I believe you are right in this, however, that it will not do to let matters take their course. The scandal that must result would be such as none of us could contemplate without revulsion. I dread the effect it may have upon dear Lady Ombersley above everything. The wretched girl must be rescued from herself!”

“And Charlbury!” Cecilia interjected, wringing her hands. “It is all my folly! I must set out at once!”

“You shall do so, and I will go with you,” said Miss Wraxton nobly. “Only permit me sufficient time, while you order your papa’s chaise to be got ready, to write a note for my mother. I daresay one of the servants would carry it round to Brook Street for me. I shall inform her merely that I have been persuaded to pass the evening with you here, and she will not find it remarkable.”

“You?” exclaimed Cecilia, staring at her. “Oh, no, no! I mean, it is excessively kind in you, dear Eugenia, but I had rather you did not come!”

“You will scarcely go alone,” Miss Wraxton reminded her.

“Sophy’s maid shall accompany me. I beg of you, do not let a word of this pass your lips!”

“My dear Cecilia, surely you will not admit a servant into your confidence? As well tell the town crier! If you will not accept my company, I must think myself obliged to divulge the whole to Lady Ombersley. I consider it my duty to go with you, and I am persuaded it is what Charles would desire me to do. My being at Lacy Manor must lend propriety to the whole, for an engaged woman, you know, stands upon a different footing from an unattached girl.”

“Oh, I do not know what to say! I wish to heaven you had never set eyes on Sophy’s letter!”

“I think it may be as well for all of us that I did set eyes on it,” replied Miss Wraxton, with a smile. “You are scarcely in a fit state, dear Cecilia, to conduct this delicate affair with any degree of composure, let me tell you. Which is it to be? Shall I go with you, or do you prefer me to lay the whole before your mama!”

“Very well, come, then!” Cecilia said, almost pettishly. “Though why you should wish to, when I know very well that you dislike Sophy amazingly, I am at a loss to understand!”

“Whatever my sentiments toward your cousin may be,” pronounced Miss Wraxton, looking quite saintly, “I trust that I may never forget my duty as a Christian.”

The ready color flooded Cecilia’s cheeks. She was a gentle girl, but this speech made her so cross that she said waspishly. “Well, I daresay Sophy will contrive to make you look foolish, because she always does, and it will serve you right, Eugenia, for meddling in what does not concern you!”

But Miss Wraxton, knowing that her hour of triumph had arrived, merely smiled in an irritating way, and recommended her to think what would be best to say to her mama.

Cecilia replied with dignity that she knew just what she should say, and moved toward the door. Before she had reached it, it was opened, and Dassett came in again, this time to inform her that Lord Bromford had called and desired the favor of a word with her.

“You should have denied me!” Cecilia said. “I cannot see Lord Bromford now!”

“No, miss,” said Dassett. “But his lordship seems quite set on seeing either you, or her ladyship, miss, and her ladyship is with Miss Amabel, and does not wish to be disturbed.” He gave his deprecating cough. “I should perhaps mention that his lordship, knowing that Miss Sophy has gone out of town, is extremely wishful to learn of her direction.”

“Who told him that Miss Sophy is gone out of town?” Cecilia said sharply.

“That I could not take it upon myself to say, miss. Not having received any orders to the contrary, I did not consider it my place to deny the fact, when his lordship condescended to inquire of me if it was true.”

Cecilia cast rather a helpless glance at Miss Wraxton, who at once took the conduct of affairs into her capable hands.

“Pray desire his lordship to step into this room!” she said.

Dassett bowed and withdrew.

“Eugenia! Take care what you are about! What do you mean to say to him?”

Miss Wraxton replied gravely, “That must depend upon circumstance. We do not know how much he is aware of, and we ought not to forget that he has as much interest in your cousin as any of us.”