Mr.Rushworth had been gone at this time to Bath, to pass a few days with his mother, and bring her back to town, and Maria was with these friends without any restraint, without even Julia; for Julia had removed from Wimpole Street two or three weeks before, on a visit to some relations of Sir Thomas; a removal which her father and mother were now disposed to attribute to some view of convenience on Mr.Yates's account.

Very soon after the Rushworths' return to Wimpole Street, Sir Thomas had received a letter from an old and most particular friend in London, who hearing and witnessing a good deal to alarm him in that quarter, wrote to recommend Sir Thomas's coming to London himself, and using his influence with his daughter to put an end to the intimacy which was already exposing her to unpleasant remarks, and evidently making Mr.Rushworth uneasy.
Sir Thomas was preparing to act upon this letter, without communicating its contents to any creature at Mansfield, when it was followed by another, sent express from the same friend, to break to him the almost desperate situation in which affairs then stood with the young people.
Mrs.Rushworth had left her husband's house: Mr.Rushworth had been in great anger and distress to _him_ (Mr.Harding) for his advice; Mr.
Harding feared there had been _at_ _least_ very flagrant indiscretion.
The maidservant of Mrs.Rushworth, senior, threatened alarmingly.

He was doing all in his power to quiet everything, with the hope of Mrs.
Rushworth's return, but was so much counteracted in Wimpole Street by the influence of Mr.Rushworth's mother, that the worst consequences might be apprehended.
This dreadful communication could not be kept from the rest of the family.

Sir Thomas set off, Edmund would go with him, and the others had been left in a state of wretchedness, inferior only to what followed the receipt of the next letters from London.

Everything was by that time public beyond a hope.