once the fondness and confidence of her manner towards her faithful
attendant. »No, Janet, not a word of mine shall do your father prejudice. But
thou seest, my love, I have no desire but to throw myself on my husband's
protection. I have left the abode he assigned for me because of the villany of
the persons by whom I was surrounded - but I will disobey his commands in no
other particular. I will appeal to him alone - I will be protected by him alone
- To no other, than at his pleasure, have I or will I communicate the secret
union which combines our hearts and our destinies. I will see him, and receive
from his own lips the directions for my future conduct. Do not argue against my
resolution, Janet; you will only confirm me in it, and, to own the truth, I am
resolved to know my fate at once, and from my husband's own mouth, and to seek
him at Kenilworth is the surest way to attain my purpose.«
    While Janet hastily revolved in her mind the difficulties and uncertainties
attendant on the unfortunate lady's situation, she was inclined to alter her
first opinion, and to think, upon the whole, that since the Countess had
withdrawn herself from the retreat in which she had been placed by her husband,
it was her first duty to repair to his presence, and possess him with the
reasons of such conduct. She knew what importance the Earl attached to the
concealment of their marriage, and could not but own, that by taking any step to
make it public without his permission, the Countess would incur, in a high
degree, the indignation of her husband. If she retired to her father's house
without an explicit avowal of her rank, her situation was likely greatly to
prejudice her character; and if she made such an avowal, it might occasion an
irreconcilable breach with her husband. At Kenilworth, again, she might plead
her cause with her husband himself, whom Janet, though distrusting him more than
the Countess did, believed incapable of being accessary to the base and
desperate means which his dependants, from whose power the lady was now
escaping, might resort to, in order to stifle her complaints of the treatment
she had received at their hands. But at the worst, and were the Earl himself to
deny her justice and protection, still at Kenilworth, if she chose to make her
wrongs public, the Countess might have Tressilian for her advocate, and the
Queen for her judge; for so much Janet had learned in her short