Alice made no answer, though she felt that she was allowing judgement to go against her by default in not doing so.

She had intended to fight bravely, and to have maintained the excellence of her present position as the affianced bride of Mr Grey, but she felt that she had failed.

She felt that she had, in some sort, acknowledged that the match was one to be deplored;--that her words in her own defence would by no means have satisfied Mr Grey, if Mr Grey could have heard them;--that they would have induced him to offer her back her troth rather than have made him happy as a lover.
But she had nothing further to say.

She could do something.

She would hurry home and bid him name the earliest day he pleased.