What, don't you see the woman is no nun, but some sly hussy that man has sent to throw dust in your eyes ?" Nothing she could say prevailed to turn him from this view, and he acted upon it with resolution: he confined her excursions to a little garden at the back of the house, and forbade her, on any pretense, to cross the threshold.
Miss Somerset came to the square in another disguise, armed with important information.

But no Bella Bruce appeared to meet her.
All this time Richard Bassett was happy as a prince.
So besotted was he with egotism, and so blinded by imaginary wrongs, that he rejoiced in the lovers' separation, rejoiced in his cousin's attack.
Polly, who now regarded him almost as a lover, told him all about it; and already in anticipation he saw himself and his line once more lords of the two manors--Bassett and Huntercombe--on the demise of Sir Charles Bassett, Bart., deceased without issue.
And, in fact, Sir Charles was utterly defeated.

He lay torpid.
But there was a tough opponent in the way--all the more dangerous that she was not feared.
One fine day Miss Somerset electrified her groom by ordering her pony carriage to the door at ten A.M.
She took the reins on the pavement, like a man, jumped in light as a feather, and away rattled the carriage into the City.

The ponies were all alive, the driver's eye keen as a bird's; her courage and her judgment equal.

She wound in and out among the huge vehicles with perfect composure; and on those occasions when, the traffic being interrupted, the oratorical powers were useful to fill up the time, she shone with singular brilliance.