peak of him. You have thought of him sometimes?"

"Yes."

"And you have thought him dead?"

"I thought so--yes."

"But he is not dead," said Lady Alice, bitterly. "To my exceeding
misfortune--and yours also--your father, Lesley, is alive."

CHAPTER II.

LADY ALICE'S STORY.

The girl shrank back a little, but she did not remove her eyes from her
mother's face. A great dread, however, had entered into them. A hot
color leaped into her cheeks. Scarcely did she yet know what she
dreaded; it was something intangible, too awful to be uttered--the
terror of disgrace.

But Lady Alice saw the look and interpreted it aright.

"No, my darling," she said, "it is not _that_. It is nothing to be
ashamed of--exactly. I do not accuse your father of any crime--unless it
be a crime to have married a woman that he did not love, and to whom he
was not suited, and to have been cruel--yes, cruel--to her and to her
child."

And then she burst into tears.

"Mamma, dear mamma!" said Lesley, clasping her and sobbing out of
sympathy, "it was a crime--worse than a crime--to be cruel to _you_."

Lady Alice sobbed helplessly for a few minutes. Then she commanded
herself by a great and visible effort and dried her eyes.

"It is weak to give way before you, child," she said, sadly. "But I
cannot tell you how much I have dreaded this moment--the moment when I
must tell you of the great error of my life."

"Don't tell me, mamma. I would rather hear nothing that you did not want
me to know."

"But I must tell you, Lesley. It is in my bargain with my husband that I
should tell you. If I say nothing he will tell you _his_ side--and
perhaps that would be worse."

Lesley kissed her mother's delicate hand. "Then--if you _must_ tell
me--I should be glad to hear it all now," she said, in a shaking voice.
"Nothing seems so bad as to know half a story--or only to guess a
part----"

"Ah, you have wondered why I told you nothing of your father?"

"I could not help wondering, mamma."

"Poor child! Well, whatever it costs me I will tell you all my story
now. Listen carefully, darling: I do not want to have to tell it twice."

She pressed her handkerchief to her lips as if to prevent them from
trembling, and then turning her eyes to another part of the room so that
they need not rest upon her daughter's face Lady Alice began her story.

"My tale is a tale of folly, not of crime," she said. "You must
remember, Lesley, that I was a mo