"Louise, too;" she faintly articulated;--"would I had not seen her! But no matter, there is still a resource!"--She burst into tears; then, after a moment's pause, hastily continued--"I presume, Sir, you have nothing farther to communicate, and I am now at liberty to depart?" Mr. Talton bowed, and ringing the bell, Lady Corbet, in a state approaching nearly to derangement, followed the servant to her carriage, and returned to the Hall. CHAPTER V. Mr. Talton silently paced the room, some minutes after her departure; he had gained the triumph over his feelings in this interview, but, he felt, too dearly, and would cheerfully have resigned half of his fortune, had Lady Corbet proved herself as amiable as he formerly thought her. He was soon joined by all the party, except Louise, who was too ill to leave her apartment; and Sir Henry being anxious to know the particulars of the interview, requested him to recount what had passed. Mr. Talton instantly complied. "Forbid it, Heaven," Sir Henry ejaculated, as he concluded, "that she should meditate suicide! Never more should I experience a moment's happiness! Sooner would I embrace the most abject poverty, than enjoy a state of affluence by driving a mother to self-destruction!" "I do not apprehend her Ladyship will commit any act of desperation on herself," said Mr. Talton: "but rather, as I intended by alarming her, endeavour to escape from justice, by resigning your possessions." He was right in his conjecture: Lady Corbet, justly alarmed at the discovery of her guilt, and dreading the power of that justice she pretended to despise, immediately on her return to the Hall, summoned Mallet, and, informing him of what had happened, ordered him to repair to London, and withdraw her property, amounting to nearly fourscore thousand pounds, exclusive of Louise's fortune, from the funds, and follow her to France. Mallet by no means approved of her precipitation:--"I wish your safety, Lady Corbet," he answered, after a pause; "yet reflect before you determine on flight. Did Talton produce the will?--No! Then may not this accusation be a plan to entice you to confess what, I grant, they may suspect, but cannot prove! Where--or how should Talton have obtained the will? Sir Henry possessed it not when he quitted the Hall, or this claim would have been made sooner. But even supposing this account of their having it to be true, (which I can scarcely credit), may there not be means to get it from their possession?--Reflect a little, Caroline, and if you can keep--there is no occasion to throw away so much property." Lady Corbet hesitated--"If I can keep--Charles: but impossible! Talton too surely has the will: he is not a man either to trifle or be trifled with. Yet how--where--or when he could obtain it--"