eared from his silence she was to remain. There was comfort, however, in
this--that the separation would not be for long; I felt confident of that;
and I was about to join Milly, whom I loved better than I could have
believed before our separation; but whatsoever the conditions might be,
it was an indescribable relief to have done with Bartram-Haugh, and leave
behind me its sinister lines of circumvallation, its haunted recesses, and
the awful spectres that had lately appeared within its walls.

I stood too much in awe of my uncle to fail in presenting myself punctually
at the close of the half-hour. I entered his sitting-room under the shadow
of sour old Wyat's high-cauled cap; she closed the door behind me, and the
conference commenced.

Madame de la Rougierre sat there, dressed and draped for a journey, and
with a thick black lace veil on. My uncle rose, gaunt and venerable, and
with a harsh and severe countenance. He did not offer his hand; he made me
a kind of bow, more of repulsion than of respect. He remained in a standing
position, supporting his crooked frame by his hand, which he leaned on a
despatch-box; he glared on me steadily with his wild phosphoric eyes, from
under the dark brows I have described to you, now corrugated in lines
indescribably stern.

'You shall join my daughter at the Pension, in France; Madame de la
Rougierre shall accompany you,' said my uncle, delivering his directions
with the stern monotony and the measured pauses of a person dictating an
important despatch to a secretary.' Old Mrs. Quince shall follow with me,
or, if alone, in a week. You shall pass to-night in London; to-morrow night
you proceed thence to Dover, and cross by the mail-packet. You shall now
sit down and write a letter to your cousin Monica Knollys, which I will
first read and then despatch. Tomorrow you shall write a note to Lady
Knollys, from _London_, telling her how you have got over so much of your
journey, and that you cannot write from Dover, as you must instantly start
by the packet on reaching it; and that until my affairs are a little
settled, you cannot write to her from France, as it is of high importance
to my safety that no clue should exist as to our address. Intelligence,
however, shall reach her through my attorneys, Archer and Sleigh, and I
trust we shall soon return. You will, please, submit that latter note to
Madame de la Rougierre, who has my directions to see that it contains no
_libels_ upon m