My mother was not Alan's mother.

I was born before my father married the lady who treated me as her daughter until her death.

My mother was an Italian, who died at my birth, and whom my father never married." Frazer looked at the beautiful woman who addressed these astonishing words to him, and amazement, incredulity, a spasm almost of fear, held him dumb.
"It is too true, Robert.

I did not know these things until a few short months ago.

Some one, I believe, told my husband the truth soon after our marriage, and it was this discovery that so changed his feelings towards me.