I was but a lighter thing, though I bore his name and he honoured me.

When you and your child greet him he will forget me--and all will be well." She held the miniature and the soft hair to his cold lips a moment, and Anne saw with wonder that her own mouth worked.

She slipped the ring on his least finger, and hid the picture and the ringlets within the palms of his folded hands.
"He was a good man," she said; "he was the first good man that I had ever known." And she held out her hand to Anne and drew her from the room with her, and two crystal tears fell upon the bosom of her black robe and slipped away like jewels.
When the funeral obsequies were over, the next of kin who was heir came to take possession of the estate which had fallen to him, and the widow retired to her father's house for seclusion from the world.

The town house had been left to her by her deceased lord, but she did not wish to return to it until the period of her mourning was over and she laid aside her weeds.

The income the earl had been able to bestow upon her made her a rich woman, and when she chose to appear again in the world it would be with the power to mingle with it fittingly.
During her stay at her father's house she did much to make it a more suitable abode for her, ordering down from London furnishings and workmen to set her own apartments and Anne's in order.