She left them at home not a loophole whereby to form a conjecture.

Her letters came regularly, from January until May, dated from all sorts of German towns, chiefly gambling towns; but the innocent dwellers at Cairnforth (save the earl) did not know this fact.

They were sweet, fond letters as ever-- mindful, with a pathetic minuteness, of every body and every thing at the dear old home; but not a complaint was breathed--not a murmur of regret concerning her marriage.

She wrote very little of her husband; gradually, Lord Cairnforth fancied, less and less.

They had not been to the south of France, as was ordered by the physicians, and intended.