In chapter 13, the General went to London for a week, and left the inhabitants of Northanger Abbey to have a lovely time without his strict schedules.
"His departure gave Catherine the first experimental conviction that a loss may be sometimes a gain. The happiness with which their time now passed, every employment voluntary, every laugh indulged, every meal a scene of ease and good-humour, walking where they liked and when they liked, their hours, pleasure and fatigues at their own command, made her thoroughly sensible of the restraint which the General's presence had imposed, and most thankfully feel their present release form it" (Austen 184).
During this time, Catherine brought up the length of her stay. How long was she welcome, was something that she wanted to know. She didn't want to overstay. Eleanor and Henry quickly shushed her reservations of being unwelcome for much longer. "The kindness, the earnestness of Eleanor's manner in pressing her to stay, and Henry's gratified look on being told that her stay was determined, were such sweet proofs of her importance with them as left her only just so much solicitude as the human mind can never do comfortably without" (Austen 185).
At the end of the chapter, however, the General returns late one night and commands that Eleanor tell her friend to leave immediately. He even scheduled a carriage to pick her up first thing after breakfast the next morning. Just after breakfast, she left Northanger Abbey, unaware of any wrongdoing on her part, but wishing she could apologize for it.
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