It is early February. Seth has been to see Dinah at Snowfield, and she has again rejected his offer of marriage. Hetty and Adam are preparing for a March wedding and everything seems fine, though Hetty is sometimes subject to strange fits of depression. We soon find out why: Hetty is pregnant and close to despair. She contemplates suicide but is afraid to go through with it and finally decides to run away to Arthur, who is stationed in Windsor, in the south of England. She tells Adam that she has decided to visit Dinah for a week and thus gets away without arousing suspicion.
