The worst of it had indeed been admitted.

She was a Roman Catholic, ill-born, ill-connected, damaged utterly by a parent so low that nothing lower could possibly be raked out of the world's gutters.

And now the girl herself was--a castaway.

Such a marriage as that of which Lady Mary spoke would not only injure the house of Scroope for the present generation, but would tend to its final downfall.

Would it not be known throughout all England that the next Earl of Scroope would be the grandson of a convict?
Might there not be questions as to the legitimacy of the assumed heir?
She herself knew of noble families which had been scattered, confounded, and almost ruined by such imprudence.