'"As the dismissal of the present establishment is of importance to me, the sooner you can fix on the day the better--though, of course, your convenience and inclination shall be first consulted. '"The child will, of course, accompany you: there is a more easy and safer carriage than the chariot (unless you prefer it) which I mentioned before--on that you can do as you please."' The next day Lady Byron replied in writing as follows: 'I shall obey your wishes, and fix the earliest day that circumstances will admit for leaving London.' Consequently she quitted London on January 15, 1816. Soon after Lady Byron's arrival at Kirkby, her mother drew from her some of the circumstances of her misery. Lady Byron then told her mother that she believed her life would be endangered by a return to her husband. She expressed an opinion that Byron was out of his mind, although he seemed competent to transact matters connected with his business affairs. Lady Noel, naturally, took her daughter's part entirely, and went to London to seek legal advice. During her stay in London, Lady Noel saw Augusta Leigh and George Byron, who agreed with her that every endeavour should be made to induce Byron to agree to a separation. She also consulted Sir Samuel Romilly, Sergeant Heywood, Dr. Lushington, and Colonel Francis Doyle, an old friend of the Milbanke family. They all agreed that a separation was necessary. It was perhaps a very natural view to take of a marriage which had run its short course so tempestuously, but there were no grounds other than incompatibility of temperament upon which to base that conclusion. 'Nothing had been said at this time,' says Lord Lovelace, 'by Lady Byron of her suspicions about Augusta, except, apparently, a few incoherent words to Lady Noel, when telling her that Lord Byron had threatened to take the child away from her and commit it to Augusta's charge.' Byron, says Lord Lovelace,[61] 'was very changeable at this time, sometimes speaking kindly of his wife--though never appearing to wish her to return--and the next hour he would say that the sooner Lady Byron's friends arranged a separation, the better.'