People appealed to her as Lord Arleigh's friend.

They asked her: "What does this mean?
Lord Arleigh was married quietly, and separated from his wife the same day.

What does it mean ?" "I cannot tell, but you may rely upon it that a reasonable explanation of the circumstances will be forthcoming," she would reply.

"Lord Arleigh is, as we all know, an honorable man, and I knew his wife." "But what can it mean ?" the questioners would persist.
"I cannot tell," she would answer, laughingly.

"I only know we must give the matter the best interpretation we can." So she escaped; and no one associated the Duchess of Hazlewood with Lord Arleigh's strange marriage.