This new adventure promised something extraordinary. Mr. Falkland did
not immediately recognise Miss Melville; and the person of Grimes was
that of a total stranger, whom he did not recollect to have ever seen.
But it was easy to understand the merits of the case, and the propriety
of interfering. The resolute manner of Mr. Falkland, conjoined with the
dread which Grimes, oppressed with a sense of wrong, entertained of the
opposition of so elevated a personage, speedily put the ravisher to
flight. Emily was left alone with her deliverer. He found her much more
collected and calm, than could reasonably have been expected from a
person who had been, a moment before, in the most alarming situation.
She told him of the place to which she desired to be conveyed, and he
immediately undertook to escort her. As they went along, she recovered
that state of mind which inclined her to make a person to whom she had
such repeated obligations, and who was so eminently the object of her
admiration, acquainted with the events that had recently befallen her.
Mr. Falkland listened with eagerness and surprise. Though he had already
known various instances of Mr. Tyrrel's mean jealousy and unfeeling
tyranny, this surpassed them all; and he could scarcely credit his ears
while he heard the tale. His brutal neighbour seemed to realise all that
has been told of the passions of fiends. Miss Melville was obliged to
repeat, in the course of her tale, her kinsman's rude accusation against
her, of entertaining a passion for Mr. Falkland; and this she did with
the most bewitching simplicity and charming confusion. Though this part
of the tale was a source of real pain to her deliverer, yet it is not to
be supposed but that the flattering partiality of this unhappy girl
increased the interest he felt in her welfare, and the indignation he
conceived against her infernal kinsman.