Arleigh
twenty times a lord, he should not break his wife's heart in that cold,
cruel fashion.

A sudden resolve came to Mrs. Dornham--she would go to Beechgrove and
see him herself. It he were angry and sent her away from Winiston House,
it would not matter--she would have told him the truth. And the truth
that she had to tell him was that the separation was slowly but surely
killing his wife.

Chapter XXXVIII.

Margaret Dornham knew no peace until she had carried out her intention.
It was but right, she said to herself, that Lord Arleigh should know
that his fair young wife was dying.

"What right had he to marry her?" she asked herself indignantly, "if he
meant to break her heart?"

What could he have left her for? It could not have been because of her
poverty or her father's crime--he knew of both beforehand. What was it?
In vain did she recall all that Madaline had ever said about her
husband--she could see no light in the darkness, find no solution to the
mystery; therefore the only course open to her was to go to Lord
Arleigh, and to tell him that his wife was dying.

"There may possibly have been some slight misunderstanding between them
which one little interview might remove," she thought.

One day she invented some excuse for her absence from Winiston House,
and started on her expedition, strong with the love that makes the
weakest heart brave. She drove the greater part of the distance, and
then dismissed the carriage, resolving to walk the remainder of the
way--she did not wish the servants to know whither she was going. It was
a delightful morning, warm, brilliant, sunny. The hedge-rows were full
of wild roses, there was a faint odor of newly-mown hay, the westerly
wind was soft and sweet.

As Margaret Dornham walked through the woods, she fell deeply into
thought. Almost for the first time a great doubt had seized her, a doubt
that made her tremble and fear. Through many long years she had clung to
Madaline--she had thought her love and tender care of more consequence
to the child than anything else. Knowing nothing of her father's rank or
position, she had flattered herself into believing that she had been
Madaline's best friend in childhood. Now there came to her a terrible
doubt. What if she had stood in Madaline's light, instead of being her
friend? She had not been informed of the arrangements between the doctor
and his patron, but people had said to her, when the doctor died, tha