Had she paused to put in motion the machinery of reason, John would have been lost.

Thomas sitting in Lady Crawford's chair and Dorothy standing beside him would have told Sir George all he needed to know.

He might not have discovered John's identity, but a rope and a tree in Bowling Green would quickly have closed the chapter of Dorothy's mysterious love affair.

Dorothy, however, did not stop to reason nor to think.

She simply acted without preliminary thought, as the rose unfolds or as the lightning strikes.