After waiting a few minutes in the fresh air and the cool shade, her
natural energy and courage helped her a little, and she became
sufficiently mistress of herself to feel the necessity of recalling her
presence of mind for her unfortunate sister's sake.

She obtained permission to speak alone with the patient, on condition
that they both remained well within the nurse's view. There was no time
for questions--there was only time for Miss Halcombe to impress on the
unhappy lady the necessity of controlling herself, and to assure her of
immediate help and rescue if she did so. The prospect of escaping from
the Asylum by obedience to her sister's directions was sufficient to
quiet Lady Glyde, and to make her understand what was required of her.
Miss Halcombe next returned to the nurse, placed all the gold she then
had in her pocket (three sovereigns) in the nurse's hands, and asked
when and where she could speak to her alone.

The woman was at first surprised and distrustful. But on Miss
Halcombe's declaring that she only wanted to put some questions which
she was too much agitated to ask at that moment, and that she had no
intention of misleading the nurse into any dereliction of duty, the
woman took the money, and proposed three o'clock on the next day as the
time for the interview. She might then slip out for half an hour,
after the patients had dined, and she would meet the lady in a retired
place, outside the high north wall which screened the grounds of the
house. Miss Halcombe had only time to assent, and to whisper to her
sister that she should hear from her on the next day, when the
proprietor of the Asylum joined them. He noticed his visitor's
agitation, which Miss Halcombe accounted for by saying that her
interview with Anne Catherick had a little startled her at first. She
took her leave as soon after as possible--that is to say, as soon as
she could summon courage to force herself from the presence of her
unfortunate sister.

A very little reflection, when the capacity to reflect returned,
convinced her that any attempt to identify Lady Glyde and to rescue her
by legal means, would, even if successful, involve a delay that might
be fatal to her sister's intellects, which were shaken already by the
horror of the situation to which she had been consigned. By the time
Miss Halcombe had got back to London, she had determined to effect Lady
Glyde's escape privately, by means of the nurse.

She went at o