had married almost above her rank, and her
father's heart had been full of joy and pride. But she had perished
childless,--in child-birth, and again he was hurt almost to death. There
was still left to him a son,--a youth indeed thoughtless, lavish, and
prone to evil pleasures. But thought would come with years; for almost
any lavishness there were means sufficient; and evil pleasures might
cease to entice. The young Lord Neville was all that was left to the
Earl, and for his heir he paid debts and forgave injuries. The young
man would marry and all might be well. Then he found a bride for his
boy,--with no wealth, but owning the best blood in the kingdom, beautiful,
good, one who might be to him as another daughter. His boy's answer was
that he was already married! He had chosen his wife from out of the
streets, and offered to the Earl of Scroope as a child to replace the
daughter who had gone, a wretched painted prostitute from France. After
that Lord Scroope never again held up his head.

The father would not see his heir,--and never saw him again. As to what
money might be needed, the lawyers in London were told to manage that.
The Earl himself would give nothing and refuse nothing. When there were
debts,--debts for the second time, debts for the third time, the lawyers
were instructed to do what in their own eyes seemed good to them. They
might pay as long as they deemed it right to pay, but they might not
name Lord Neville to his father.

While things were thus the Earl married again,--the penniless daughter
of a noble house,--a woman not young, for she was forty when he married
her, but more than twenty years his junior. It sufficed for him that she
was noble, and as he believed good. Good to him she was,--with a duty
that was almost excessive. Religious she was, and self-denying; giving
much and demanding little; keeping herself in the background, but
possessing wonderful energy in the service of others. Whether she could
in truth be called good the reader may say when he has finished this
story.

Then, when the Earl had been married some three years to his second
wife, the heir died. He died, and as far as Scroope Manor was concerned
there was an end of him and of the creature he had called his wife.
An annuity was purchased for her. That she should be entitled to call
herself Lady Neville while she lived, was the sad necessity of the
condition. It was understood by all who came near the Earl that no one
wa