Her father sat on the opposite side reading. With a word
of reply to Nancy, she fell into silence again. Only, instead of the
vague wonder how she should meet the future, her thoughts now turned to
the past. It was nine mornings since that consultation with her father
in the library, and they had been only one night at sea. It had taken a
week to get off. From the first she had counted upon Mrs. Eveleigh's
remonstrances and vehement reproaches of Mr. Royal's wrong-doing in
taking his daughter into such danger. They were only a little more
vehement than she had expected. But Mrs. Eveleigh did not know the
errand; if she had, that would have made a difference, or, as Elizabeth
reflected, she thought that this would have been treated as the
strangest part of the affair. But she had kept her own counsel, saying
only that her father and she thought it right. Mrs. Eveleigh had been so
exasperated by being kept in the dark that she had retained her anger to
the very last day. Then she had drowned her resentment in a flood of
tears, and declared between her sobs that, frightful as it all was, for
she dreaded the very sight of a gun, she would rather go with Elizabeth
than have the dear girl set off without any companion.
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