Catherine immediately ran to her room and stayed there for half an hour expecting the General to send word for her to scold her. Since she received no word of this, she eventually went down to the breakfast-room. Eleanor informed her, “My father only wanted me to answer a note.” Catherine was still afraid of the General and was very quiet in his presence for the rest of the day.
On reflecting back on the morning’s events, Catherine came to the conclusion that it would be better if she did not go to the apartments with Eleanor. She felt it was not right for her to take Eleanor into a place which so clearly caused her grief and might lead to her being found by the General again. She also “thought the examination would be more satisfactory if made without any companion.” She knew she could not search for any evidence of foul play “she felt confident of somewhere drawing forth, in the shape of some fragmented journal” if Eleanor was present. Catherine was familiar with the route to the room and since Henry was expected to arrive the next morning, decided “there was no time to be lost.”
She made her way to the gallery, and entered the room. She had expected to have her feelings worked, and they were. “Astonishment and doubt first seized them; and a shortly succeeding ray of common sense added some bitter emotions of shame.” She was about to leave the room when she heard footsteps behind her.
“She had no power to move.” She saw Henry climbing up the stair case, and exclaimed, “How came you here?- how came you up that staircase?” He told her it was the nearest way from the stable-yard to his room, “and why should I not come up it?”
He then asked her why she was here to which Catherine replied, “I have been…to see your mother’s room.” Henry was astonished. “Is there anything extraordinary to be seen there?” He commented that she looked pale and wondered why Eleanor had not come along to show her the rooms. “She sent you to look at it, I suppose?” When she did not reply, he assumed she was curious as she had heard high opinions of Mrs. Tilney.
Catherine then said she believed her dying so suddenly, with none of the children at home, was strange, and expressed her feeling that the General “perhaps had not been very fond of her.” Henry informed her that his mother had died from a bilious fever and was attended to by a skilled physician. Henry and Frederick had both been at home, only Eleanor had been absent.
He told Catherine that his father was affected by her death for a long time and that “he loved her, I am persuaded, as well as it was possible for him to.” Henry then rebuked her for her pre-conceived ideas. “Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained.” “Remember that we are English, that we are Christians.”
Catherine was greatly ashamed of her naïve suspicions and ran to her room. She felt pangs of remorse and cried most bitterly.