e
window-sill and descended with him as we have seen.

Her mother meanwhile, having received Tupcombe's note, found the news of
her husband's illness so serious, as to displace her thoughts of the
coming son-in-law, and she hastened to tell her daughter of the Squire's
dangerous condition, thinking it might be desirable to take her to her
father's bedside. On trying the door of the girl's room, she found it
still locked. Mrs. Dornell called, but there was no answer. Full of
misgivings, she privately fetched the old house-steward and bade him
burst open the door--an order by no means easy to execute, the joinery of
the Court being massively constructed. However, the lock sprang open at
last, and she entered Betty's chamber only to find the window unfastened
and the bird flown.

For a moment Mrs. Dornell was staggered. Then it occurred to her that
Betty might have privately obtained from Tupcombe the news of her
father's serious illness, and, fearing she might be kept back to meet her
husband, have gone off with that obstinate and biassed servitor to Falls-
Park. The more she thought it over the more probable did the supposition
appear; and binding her own head-man to secrecy as to Betty's movements,
whether as she conjectured, or otherwise, Mrs. Dornell herself prepared
to set out.

She had no suspicion how seriously her husband's malady had been
aggravated by his ride to Bristol, and thought more of Betty's affairs
than of her own. That Betty's husband should arrive by some other road
to-night, and find neither wife nor mother-in-law to receive him, and no
explanation of their absence, was possible; but never forgetting chances,
Mrs. Dornell as she journeyed kept her eyes fixed upon the highway on the
off-side, where, before she had reached the town of Ivell, the hired
coach containing Stephen Reynard flashed into the lamplight of her own
carriage.

Mrs. Dornell's coachman pulled up, in obedience to a direction she had
given him at starting; the other coach was hailed, a few words passed,
and Reynard alighted and came to Mrs. Dornell's carriage-window.

'Come inside,' says she. 'I want to speak privately to you. Why are you
so late?'

'One hindrance and another,' says he. 'I meant to be at the Court by
eight at latest. My gratitude for your letter. I hope--'

'You must not try to see Betty yet,' said she. 'There be far other and
newer reasons against your seeing her now than there were when I wrote.