Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 2).pdf/461

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horses immediately to the door. She was desperate, she said, and careless alike of appearances and of consequences. She would seek Harleigh herself. His icy heart, with all its apathy, recoiled from the sound of her last groan; but she would not spare him that little pain, since its infliction was all that could make the end of her career less intolerable than its progress.

She was just ready, when Mrs. Maple, called up by Mr. Naird, to dissuade her niece from this enterprize, would have represented the impropriety of the intended measure. But Elinor protested that she had finally taken leave of all fatiguing formalities; and refused even to open the chamber-door.

She could not, however, save herself from hearing a warm debate between Mrs. Maple and Mr. Naird, in which the following words caught her ears: "Shocking, Madam, or not, it is indispensable, if go she will, that you should accompany her; for the motion of a carriage