stern unpitying accents, which perhaps in such a moment of
remorseful agony might have been spared, but she replied not; and, after
a brief silence, the Duchess again spoke.

"Caroline, answer me. What has caused this sudden change in your
intentions? What has chanced between you and Lord Alphingham to demand
this sudden longing for home? What impulse bids you thus elude him?"

"The memory of my mother's love," and Caroline raised her head, and
pushing back her disordered hair, gazed upon the face of the Duchess
with an expression of suffering few could have looked upon unmoved.
"You are right, I have deceived my too indulgent parents, I have abused
their confidence, insulted their love; but I cannot, oh, I cannot still
those principles within me which they have implanted. In my hours of
maddening folly I remembered them not; I believed they had gone from me
for ever, and I should be happy. They have returned to torture me, to
tell me that as the wife of Lord Alphingham, without the blessing of my
parents, I shall be wretched. I have brought down endless misery on
myself--that matters not; but oh, I will not cause them further
suffering. I will no longer wring the heart of my gentle mother, who has
so often prayed for her erring child. Too late, perhaps, I have
determined, but the wife of Lord Alphingham I will never be; but his
character is still dear to me, and I entreat your Grace not to withdraw
your favour from him. He alone is not to blame, I also am culpable, for
I acknowledge the encouragement I have given him. My character for
integrity is gone, but his is still unstained."

"Fear not for him, my favour he has never had; but my honour is too dear
to me for such an affair as this to pass my lips. Let him continue the
courted, the spoiled, the flattered child of fashion he has ever been. I
regard him not. Let him run his course rejoicing, it matters not to me."
She rang the bell as she spoke, and slowly and silently paced the room
till Allison obeyed the summons. "Desire James to put four swift horses
to the chariot. Important business calls me instantly to London; bid him
use dispatch, every moment is precious."

Allison departed, and the Duchess continued pacing the apartment till
she returned, announcing the carriage as ready. A very few minutes
sufficed for their personal preparations, for the Duchess to give
peremptory orders to her trusty Allison to keep her departure a profound
secret, as she should ret