fessed to her, she appears to have most unreasonably overrated
whatever merit there might have been in their resistance to the final
temptation. She was indeed so impulsively ready to forgive (without
waiting to see if the event justified the exercise of mercy) that she
owns to having given her hand to Miss Westerfield, at parting, not half
an hour after that young person's shameless forgetfulness of the claims
of modesty, duty and gratitude had been first communicated to her. To
say that this was the act of an inconsiderate woman, culpably indiscreet
and, I had almost added, culpably indelicate, is only to say what she
has deserved. On the next occasion to which I feel bound to advert, her
conduct was even more deserving of censure. She herself appears to have
placed the temptation under which he fell in her husband's way, and so
(in some degree at least) to have provoked the catastrophe which has
brought her before this court. I allude, it is needless to say, to her
having invited the governess--then out of harm's way; then employed
elsewhere--to return to her house, and to risk (what actually occurred)
a meeting with Mr. Herbert Linley when no third person happened to be
present. I know that the maternal motive which animated Mrs. Linley is
considered, by many persons, to excuse and even to justify that most
regrettable act; and I have myself allowed (I fear weakly allowed) more
than due weight to this consideration in pronouncing for the Divorce.
Let me express the earnest hope that Mrs. Linley will take warning by
what has happened; and, if she finds herself hereafter placed in other
circumstances of difficulty, let me advise her to exercise more control
over impulses which one might expect perhaps to find in a young girl,
but which are neither natural nor excusable in a woman of her age."

His lordship then decreed the Divorce in the customary form, giving the
custody of the child to the mother.

* * * * *

As fast as a hired carriage could take him, Mr. Sarrazin drove from the
court to Mrs. Linley's lodgings, to tell her that the one great object
of securing her right to her child had been achieved.

At the door he was met by Mrs. Presty. She was accompanied by a
stranger, whose medical services had been required. Interested
professionally in hearing the result of the trial, this gentleman
volunteered to communicate the good news to his patient. He had been
waiting to administer a compos