"
"That would not grieve me," said Lady Bassett. "The place is odious to
me, now you are not there. But what would censorious people say?"
"What could they say, except that you obeyed your husband?"
"Is it a command, then, dearest?"
"It is a command; and, although you are free, and I am a
prisoner--although you are still an ornament to society, and I pass for
an outcast, still I expect you to obey me when I assume a husband's
authority. I have not taken the command of you quite so much as you
used to say I must; but on this occasion I do. You will leave
Huntercombe, and avoid that caitiff until our child is born."
"That ends all discussion," said Lady Bassett. "Oh, Charles, my only
regret is that it costs me nothing to obey you. But when did it ever?
My king!"
He had ordered her to do the very thing she wished to do.
She now gave her housekeeper minute instructions, settled the board
wages of the whole establishment, and sent her home in the carriage,
retaining her own boxes and packages at the inn.
Richard Bassett soon found out that Lady Bassett had left Huntercombe.
He called on Wheeler and told him. Wheeler suggested she had gone to be
near her husband.
"No," said Bassett, "she has joined her lover. I wonder at our
simplicity in believing that fellow was gone to Italy.
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