my all about it at the time of their marriage, and
that is the reason they have tried to keep Opal as secluded as possible
from the usual free-and-easy associations of American girls, and are so
anxious to marry her off wisely."

"And speedily," put in Alice--"the sooner the better!"

"Yes, yes--speedily!"

Lady Fletcher gave an uneasy glance in Opal's direction before she
continued.

"You are too young to have heard the story, Alice, but her
grandmother--a black-eyed Spanish lady of high rank--was made quite
unpleasantly notorious by her associations with a brother of Lady
Henrietta Verdayne. He was an unprincipled roue--this Lord Hubert
Aldringham--a libertine who openly boasted of the conquests he had made
abroad. Being appointed to many foreign posts in the diplomatic service,
he was naturally on intimate terms with people of rank and royalty. They
say he was very fascinating, with the devil's own eye, and ten times as
devilish a heart--"

"Why, Mamma!"

Alice was shocked.

"I am only repeating what they said, child," apologized the elder woman
meekly. "Women will be fools, you know, over a handsome face and a
tender voice--some women, I mean--and that's what Opal has to fight
against."

"Poor Opal," murmured Alice, "I did not know!"

"Some even go so far as to say--"

Again Lady Fletcher looked up apprehensively, but Opal was still
absorbed in her dreams.

"To say--what, Mother?"

"Well, of course it's only talk--nobody can actually _know,_ I suppose,
and I wouldn't, of course, be quoted as saying anything for the world,
dear knows; but they say that it is more than probable that Opal's
mother was ... _Lord Hubert's own daughter!"_

"Oh, Mother! If it is true--if it _could_ be true--what a fight for
her!"

"Yes, and the worst of it is with Opal, she won't fight. She has been
rigidly trained in the principles of virtue and propriety from her very
birth, and yet she horrifies every one at times by shocking ideas--that
no one knows where she gets, nor, worse yet, where they may lead!"

"But she is good, Mother. She has the noblest ideas of charity and
kindness and altruism, of the advancement of all that's good and true in
the world, of the attainment of knowledge, of the beauties and
consolation of religion. It's fine to hear her talk when she's
inspired--not a bit preachy, you know--she's certainly far enough from
that--but more like reading some beautiful poem you can but half
understand, or