of course over between her and Captain
Aylmer, and therefore there was no longer any hindrance to her doing
so on that score. But what would be her cousin Will's wish? He, now,
was the only friend to whom she could trust for good council. What
would be his advice? Should she write and ask him? No;--she could not
do that. She could not bring herself to write to him, telling him
that the Aylmer "entanglement" was at an end. Were she to do so, he,
with his temperament, would take such letter as meaning much more
than it was intended to mean. But she would write a letter to Captain
Aylmer. This she thought that she would do at once, and she began it.
She got as far as "My dear Captain Aylmer," and then she found that
the letter was one which could not be written very easily. And she
remembered, as the greatness of the difficulty of writing the letter
became plain to her, that it could not now be sent so as to reach
Captain Aylmer before he would leave London. If written at all,
it must be addressed to him at Aylmer Park, and the task might be
done to-morrow as well as to-day. So that task was given up for the
present.

But she did write a letter to Mrs. Askerton,--a letter which she
would send or not on the morrow, according to the state of her mind
as it might then be. In this she declared her purpose of leaving
Aylmer Park on the day after Captain Aylmer's arrival, and asked
to be taken in at the cottage. An answer was to be sent to her,
addressed to the Great Northern Railway Hotel.

Richards, the maid, came up to her before dinner, with offers of
assistance for dressing,--offers made in a tone which left no doubt
on Clara's mind that Richards knew all about the quarrel. But Clara
declined to be dressed, and sent down a message saying that she would
remain in her room, and begging to be supplied with tea. She would
not even condescend to say that she was troubled with a headache.
Then Belinda came up to her, just before dinner was announced, and
with a fluttered gravity advised Miss Amedroz to come down-stairs.
"Mamma thinks it will be much better that you should show yourself,
let the final result be what it may."

"But I have not the slightest desire to show myself."

"There are the servants, you know."

"But, Miss Aylmer, I don't care a straw for the servants;--really not
a straw."

"And papa will feel it so."

"I shall be sorry if Sir Anthony is annoyed;--but I cannot help it.
It has not been my doing."