--married against my father's
wish, and without his consent. The lady I loved was like your own; she
was below me in position, but in nothing else. She was the daughter of a
clergyman, a lady of striking beauty, good education and manners. I need
not trouble you by telling you how it came about. I married her against
my father's wish; he was in Italy at the time for his health--he had
been there indeed for some years. I married her privately; our secret
was well kept. Some time after our marriage I received a telegram
stating that my father was dying and wished to see me. At that very time
we were expecting the birth of what we hoped would be a son and heir.
But I was anxious that my father should see and bless my wife before he
died. She assured me that the journey would not hurt her, that no evil
consequences would ensue; and, as I longed intensely for my father to
see her, it was arranged that we should go together. A few hours of the
journey passed happily enough, and then my poor wife was taken ill.
Heaven pardon me because of my youth, my ignorance, my inexperience! I
think sometimes that I might have saved her--but it is impossible to
tell. We stopped at a little town called Castledene, and I drove to the
hotel. There were races, or something of the kind, going on in the
neighborhood, and the proprietors could not accommodate us. I drove to
the doctor, who was a good Samaritan; he took us into his house--my
child was born, and my wife died there. It was not a son and heir, as we
had hoped it might be, but a little daughter, as fair as her mother. Ah,
Lord Arleigh, you have had your troubles, I have had mine. My wife was
buried at Castledene--my beautiful young wife, whom I loved so dearly. I
left my child, under the doctor's care, with a nurse, having arranged to
pay so much per annum for her, and intending when I returned to England
to take her home to Wood Lynton as my heiress. My father, contrary to
the verdict of the physicians, lingered about three years. Then he died,
and I became Earl of Mountdean. The first thing I did was to hurry to
Castledene. Can you imagine my horror when I found that all trace of my
child was lost? The poor doctor had met with some terrible death, and
the woman who had charge of my little one had left the neighborhood. Can
you imagine what this blow was to me? Since then my life has been spent
in one unceasing effort to find my daughter."

"How strange!" said Lord Arleigh. "Did you n