No man in his senses would voluntarily admit a criminal's daughter into his family." "No; it is even a harder case than I thought it," said the earl.

"The only thing I can recommend is resignation." Lord Mountdean thought that he would like to see the hapless young wife, and learn if she suffered as her husband did.

He wondered too what she could be like, this convict's daughter who had been gifted with a regal dower of grace and beauty--this lowly-born child of the people who had been fair enough to charm the fastidious Lord Arleigh.
Meanwhile Madaline was all unconscious of the strides that destiny was making in her favor.

She had thought her husband's letter all that was most kind; and, though she felt that there was no real grounds for it, she impressed upon her mother the need of the utmost reticence.

Margaret Dornham understood from the first.
"Never have a moment's uneasiness, Madaline," she said.