x when she fainted; her eyes were turned upon
you as she fell. She is the woman you love."

"Say whom I loved, and Heaven knows I did love her; but she fled from me
without a word, to expose herself upon that stage. I thought her the
daughter of a respectable man, at least; when I am told in every
club-house, she is the nameless child of that woman, Olympia. I would
not believe it, till the actress confirmed the story with her own lips;
then I learned that her home was with this woman, and that she, a
creature I had believed innocent as the wild blossoms, had used her
glorious voice for the entertainment of her mother's Sunday evening
parties."

Lady Clara grew pale, and her eyes began to flash.

"You are doing great wrong to a noble and good young lady," she said, in
a clear, ringing voice, from which all laughter had gone out. "You are
unjust, cruel--wickedly cruel--both to yourself and her. I have no
patience with you!"

"Do you know Caroline, then? But that is impossible."

"Impossible--what? That I should know the daughter of Olympia? But I do
know her. There was a time, I honestly believe, when we were children
together, cared for by the same nurse. This I can assure you, Lord
Hilton: she was not brought up by the actress; never saw her, in truth,
until she was over sixteen years old, when the woman, hearing of her
genius and beauty, claimed her as a chattel rather than a child."

"Are you sure of this, Lady Clara?" inquired the young man, greatly
disturbed.

"I know it. The poor young lady, brought up with such delicate care,
educated as if she were one day to become a peeress of the land, took a
terrible dislike to the stage, and, so long as she dared, protested
against the life that ambitious actress had marked out for her. That
night you saw her she was forced upon the stage after praying upon her
knees to be spared. Her acting, from the first, was desperation. She saw
you, and it became despair; and you could doubt her--you could leave
her. Lord Hilton, I hate you!"

"I begin to hate myself," said the young man in a low voice; "but even
now, what can I do? What power have I to wrest her from the influence of
that woman?"

"What power? The power of honest and generous love. Ask her to marry
you."

Lord Hilton answered with a faint, bitter laugh.

"Ask her to marry me, and, with that act, proclaim myself a beggar! I
tell you, Lady Clara, there is not upon this earth a creature so
dependent as a n