about ten o'clock
sobbed my poor bairn . Priscilla was stupified , and she repeated the word `` Away ! '' but the truth broke over me in a moment ; and I sank back into a chair , as helpless , for all the world , as a new-born infant . Rachel tried to compose herself the best way she could ; and she informed us that her sister had left the house about ten o'clock in the forenoon , and that she had not since returned . She also mentioned that Elizabeth had been seen in the company of Charles Austin shortly after leaving the house ; and that , when she did not return in the course of the day , suspecting that they had fled to Gretna , she had sent my principal clerk , Thomas Galloway , after them , in a chaise-and-four , to bring back Elizabeth . Distressed as I was , I admired the presence of mind which Rachel had exhibited . She had done all that I could have done myself , had I been at home ; and a fitter person than Thomas Galloway could not have been sent .