Long and anxiously did Lord Arleigh muse over his wife's letter.

What was he to do?
If her mother was like the generality of her class, then he was quite sure that the secret he had kept would be a secret no longer--there was no doubt of that.

She would naturally talk, and the servants would prove the truth of the story, and there would be a terrible _expose_.

Yet, lonely and sorrowful as Madaline declared herself to be, how could he refuse her?
It was an anxious question for him, and one that caused him much serious thought.

Had he known how ill she was he would not have hesitated a moment.
He wrote to Madaline--how the letter was received and cherished no one but herself knew--and told her that he would be in England in a day or two, and would then give her a decided answer.