ABSTRACT
THE following day they proceeded early on their journey, and Mrs. Elphinstone thus reassumed her narrative – ‘In our way from Ealing to London, Alexander Elphinstone endeavoured by every argument in his power to strengthen my resolution, and calm those fears I expressed at meeting with my father and mother; who would, I apprehended, be enraged against me for a misfortune they had themselves taken no pains to prevent. This dreadful meeting must however be hazarded: I tottered as well as I was able into the dining-room, and sending for my father out of his counting house,a I put into his hands the fatal note, and informed him as well as I could of what had happened. He was too reasonable to blame me for an error he had as little foreseen himself; but hastening out of the room with Elphinstone, enquired, as I afterwards learned, whether he thought Beresford meant to marry my sister? Elphinstone, with some hesitation, answered that he feared not. “Let us then,” said he, “endeavour to find her, and if it be possible, hush up this unhappy affair before it becomes more known.”
