That ever-present terror it was indispensable to remove from her mind at all hazards; and he thought how this might be done.
Without saying a word to anybody in the house, or to the disquieted Winterborne waiting in the lane below, Dr.Jones went home and wrote to Mr.Melbury at the London address he had obtained from his wife.

The gist of his communication was that Mrs.Fitzpiers should be assured as soon as possible that steps were being taken to sever the bond which was becoming a torture to her; that she would soon be free, and was even then virtually so.

"If you can say it AT ONCE it may be the means of averting much harm," he said.

"Write to herself; not to me." On Saturday he drove over to Hintock, and assured her with mysterious pacifications that in a day or two she might expect to receive some assuring news.

So it turned out.