But on the night of her return it pressed.
And as a reasonable woman, thirty years of age, she proceeded to look it in the face.
When Captain Dell so opportunely--or inconveniently--knocked at the library door, Mr.Mannering was on the point of asking his secretary to marry him.

Of that Elizabeth was sure.
She had just escaped, but the siege would be renewed.

How was she going to meet it?
Why shouldn't she marry the Squire?
She was poor, but she had qualities much more valuable to the Squire than money.

She could rescue him from debt, put his estate on a paying footing, restore Mannering, rebuild the village, and all the time keep him happy by her sympathy with and understanding of his classical studies and hobbies.
And thereby she would be doing not only a private but a public service.

The Mannering estate and its owner had been an offence to the patriotism of a whole neighbourhood.