CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXIX
CHAPTER XL
Ellis hastened to the house; but her weeping eyes, and disordered stateof mind, unfitted her for an immediate encounter with Elinor, and shewent straight to her own chamber; where, in severe meditation upon herposition, her duties, and her calls for exertion, she 'communed with herown heart.' Although unable, while involved in uncertainties, to arrangeany regular plan of general conduct, conscience, that unerring guide,where consulted with sincerity, pointed out to her, that, after what hadpassed, the first step demanded by honour, was to quit the house, thespot, and the connexions, in which she was liable to keep alive anyintercourse with Harleigh. What strikes me to be right, she internallycried, I must do; I may then have some chance for peace, ... howeverlittle for happiness!
Her troubled spirits thus appeased, she descended to inform Elinor ofthe result of her commission. She had received, indeed, no directmessage; but Harleigh meant to desire a conference, and that desirewould quiet, she hoped, and occupy the ideas of Elinor, so as to diverther from any minute investigation into the circumstances by which it hadbeen preceded.
The door of the dressing room was locked, and she tapped at it foradmission in vain; she concluded that Elinor was in her bed-chamber, towhich there was no separate entrance, and tapped louder, that she mightbe heard; but without any better success. She remained, most uneasily,in the landing-place, till the approaching footstep of Harleigh forcedher away.
Upon re-entering her own chamber, and taking up her needle-work, shefound a letter in its folds.
The direction was merely To Ellis. This assured her that it was from[Pg 182]Elinor, and she broke the seal, and read the following lines.
'All that now remains for the ill-starred Elinor, is to fly thewhole odious human race. What can it offer to me but disgust andaversion? Despoiled of the only scheme in which I ever gloried,that of sacrificing in death, to the man whom I adore, theexistence I vainly wished to
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