nd argue and represent his conduct in any light that suits his purpose.
He is a very eloquent--a very plausible man. He will try to win you over
to his side."

"But I shall never see him."

"Yes, Lesley, you will. You are going to him to-morrow."

"I will not--I will not"--said the girl, springing from her knees, and
involuntarily clenching her right hand. "I will not speak to him--if he
treated my darling mother so shamefully he must be bad, and I will not
acknowledge any relationship to him."

A look of apprehension showed itself in Lady Alice's eyes.

"Darling," she said, "you must not let your generous love for me run
away with your judgment. I am bound, and you must be bound with me.
Listen, when your father found that I had left him he was exceedingly
angry. He came to your grandfather's house, he clamored to see me, he
attempted to justify himself--oh, I cannot tell you the misery that I
went through. At last I consented to see him. He behaved like a madman.
He swore that he would have me back--tyrant that he was!"

"Mamma--perhaps he cared?"

"Cared! He cared for his reputation," said Lady Alice growing rather
white about the lips. "For nothing else! Not for me, Lesley! When his
violence had expended itself we came to terms. He agreed to let me live
where I liked on condition that when you were eight years old you were
sent to school, and saw me only during the holidays----"

"But why?"

"He said that he dreaded my influence on your mind," said Lady Alice.
"That you should be brought up at a good school was the first thing.
Secondly, that when you were nineteen you should spend a year with him,
and then a year with me; and that when you were twenty-one you should
choose for yourself with which of the two you preferred to cast in your
lot."

"Oh, mamma, I cannot go to him now."

"You must go, Lesley. I am bound, and you are bound by my promise. Only
for a year, my darling. Then you can come back to me for ever. I
stipulated that I should see you first, and say to you what I chose."

"But cannot I wait a little while?"

"Twenty-four hours, Lesley; that is all. You go to your father
to-morrow."

CHAPTER III.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

The conversation between Lesley and her mother occupied a considerable
time, and the sun was sinking westward when at last the two ladies left
the Convent. Lesley's adieux had been made before Lady Alice's arrival,
and the only persons whom she saw, therefore,