IF SIR WILLIAM BELIEVED that Lady Catherine would be easily parted from her fortune, he was to be disappointed. Far from the familiar, sentimental pattern of their intercourse, when it came to pecuniary matters, Lady Catherine preferred to involve herself in the details of the speculation to an astonishing degree. She believed herself to have—either by absorption or marriage—acquired Sir Lewis’s discernment for matters of business, and was not to be dissuaded from appraising the apparatus first-hand. Accordingly, amidst the mud and miserable weather of March, a travelling chaise-and-six set out from Bath on a tedious journey to the neighbourhood of Telford. The destination of this excursion was an iron foundry where the proprietor had installed a new system of steam-lights. The journey necessitated a stop in Worcester, and thence through slogging rain to the area of ——, close-by the town of Telford. The day was uncommonly unpleasant and the chaise unbearably tight, owing to the requisite discomfort of bringing Lady Catherine’s waiting woman and a maid, besides Lady Catherine, Anne, Sir William and his associate Colonel Wallis, the latter having been gratefully liberated from the stifling confines of the coach by the conventions of rank, and the corresponding opportunity to sit in the cold rain on the box with the coachman. Although the party were going to be only three nights on the road, Lady Catherine was accompanied not only by her entourage, including an additional two out-riders for safety, but enough baggage for a month’s sojourn. It was necessary for Sir William to remind himself repeatedly of the profitable speculation to be infused by Lady Catherine’s jointure to keep himself in even the appearance of a tolerable humour. The rattle of the chaise and the pounding rain were the only audible relief from the Lady’s interminable narratives, invariably concerning the affability of her temper and the condescension of her notice, as liberally applied of late to the trivialities of Hunsford and amongst her numerous noble acquaintance at Bath.