Before she had been at Thorpe Castle long Marion Arleigh was queen of the new world.

In the midst of all her happiness the first letter from Allan Lyster came like a thunderbolt.
She was naturally so frank, so candid, that the keeping of a secret was most difficult to her.

Her first impulse was to go to Lady Ridsdale and tell her everything.

Then she remembered that she had given a solemn pledge of secrecy, and that she must not say one word.
It made her very unhappy.

She did not like the sense of concealment.