fail in the hour of trial: she would be patient and endure!

"If you will explain, mamma dear," she said, entreatingly, "I will try
to do--as you would like."

"My darling! My Lesley! What a help it is to me to see you so brave!"
said her mother, putting her arms round the girl's shoulders, and
resting her face on the bright young head. "If I could keep you with me!
but it will be only for a time, my child, and then--then you _will_ come
back to me?"

"Come back to you, mamma? As if anything would keep me away! But what is
it? where am I to go? what am I to do? Why haven't you told me before?"

She was trembling with excitement. Patience was not one of Lesley's
virtues. She felt, with sudden heat of passion, that she could bear any
pain rather than this suspense, which her mother's gentle reluctance to
give pain inflicted upon her.

"I did not tell you before," said Lady Alice, slowly, "because I was
under a promise not to do so. I have been obliged to keep you in the
dark about your future for many a long year, Lesley, and the concealment
has always weighed upon my mind. You must forgive me, dearest, for this:
I did not see the consequence of my promise when I made it first."

"What promise was it, mamma?"

"To let you leave me for a time, my dear: to let you go from me--to let
you choose your own life--oh, it seems hard and cruel to me now."

"Tell me," pleaded Lesley, whose heart was by this time beating with
painful rapidity, "tell me all--quickly, mamma, and I promise----"

"Promise nothing until you have heard what I have to say," said her
mother, drawing back. "I want you to hear the story before you see your
grandfather again: that is the reason why I begged the Mother to let me
speak to you here, before you left the convent. I have been forced into
my present line of action, Lesley: I never took it wilfully. You shall
judge for yourself if it were likely that I----But I will not excuse
myself beforehand. I can tell you all that is necessary for you to know
in very few words; and the rest lies in your hands."

Lady Alice's pale lips quivered as she spoke, but her eyes were dry and
filled with a light which was singularly cold and stern. Lesley,
kneeling still, looked up into her face, and, fascinated by what she saw
there, remained motionless and mute.

"I have not let you speak to me of your father," Lady Alice began,
"because I did not know how to answer your questions truthfully. But now
I must s