n ample dowry for her; and
whether Mr. Darrell ever know it or not, at least I should have the
secret joy to think that I was saving him from the risk of remorse
hereafter--should she be, as we believe, his daughter's child, and have
been thrown upon the world destitute;--yes, the secret joy of feeling
that I was sheltering, fostering as a mother, one whose rightful home
might be with him who in my childhood sheltered, fostered me!"

GEORGE (much affected).--"How, in proportion as we know you, the beauty
which you veil from the world outshines that which you cannot prevent
the world from seeing! But you must not let this grateful enthusiasm
blind your better judgment. You think these young persons are beginning
to be really attached to each other. Then it is the more necessary that
no time should be lost in learning how Mr. Darrell would regard such a
marriage. I do not feel so assured of his consent as you appear to do.
At all events, this should be ascertained before their happiness
is seriously involved. I agree with you that Lionel is the best
intermediator to plead for Sophy; and his very generosity in urging her
prior claim to a fortune that might otherwise pass to him is likely to
have weight with a man so generous himself as Guy Darrell is held to be.
But does Lionel yet know all? Have you yet ventured to confide to him,
or even to Sophy herself, the nature of her claim on the man who so
proudly denies it?"

"No--I deemed it due to Sophy's pride of sex to imply to her that she
would, in fortune and in social position, be entitled to equality with
those whom she might meet here. And that is true, if only as the child
whom I adopt and enrich. I have not said more. And only since Lionel has
appeared has she ever seemed interested in anything that relates to
her parentage. From the recollection of her father she naturally
shrinks--she never mentions his name. But two days ago she did ask
timidly, and with great change of countenance, if it was through her
mother that she was entitled to a rank higher than she had hitherto
known; and when I answered 'yes,' she sighed, and said 'But my dear
grandfather never spoke to me of her; he never even saw my mother.'"

GEORGE.--"And you, I suspect, do not much like to talk of that mother. I
have gathered from you, unawares to yourself, that she was not a person
you could highly praise; and to me, as a boy, she seemed, with all her
timidity, wayward and deceitful."

LADY MON