But this was the only point of relief.

In every other respect, in looking around her, or penetrating forward, she saw more to distrust and to apprehend.

She was concerned for the disappointment and pain Lady Russell would be feeling; for the mortifications which must be hanging over her father and sister, and had all the distress of foreseeing many evils, without knowing how to avert any one of them.

She was most thankful for her own knowledge of him.

She had never considered herself as entitled to reward for not slighting an old friend like Mrs Smith, but here was a reward indeed springing from it! Mrs Smith had been able to tell her what no one else could have done.