He left his child to the care of Lady Ridsdale--his sister--but she died when Marion was four years old, and Lord Ridsdale, not knowing what better to do, sent his little ward to school.

He thought first of having a governess at home for her; that would have necessitated a chaperon, and for that he was not inclined.
"Send her to school," was the advice given him by all his lady friends, and Lord Ridsdale followed it, as being the safest and wisest plan yet suggested to him.

She was sent first to a lady's school at Brighton, then to Paris, with Lady Livingstone's daughters, then to Miss Carleton's, and Miss Carleton was by universal consent considered the most efficient finishing governess in England.
Marion was very clever; she was romantic to a fault; she idealized everything and every one with whom she came into contact.

She had a poet's soul, loving most dearly all things bright and beautiful; she was very affectionate, very impressionable, able, generous with a queenly lavishness, truthful, noble.

Had she been trained by a careful mother, Marion Arleigh would have been one of the noblest of women; but the best of school training cannot compensate for the wise and loving discipline of home.