"
Lord Arleigh mused long and anxiously over this letter. He hardly cared
that her mother should go to Dower House; it would perhaps be the means
of his unhappy secret becoming known. Nor did he like to refuse
Madaline, unhappy, lonely, and ill. Dear Heaven, if he could but go to
her himself and comfort her.
Chapter XXXVI.
Long and anxiously did Lord Arleigh muse over his wife's letter. What
was he to do? If her mother was like the generality of her class, then
he was quite sure that the secret he had kept would be a secret no
longer--there was no doubt of that. She would naturally talk, and the
servants would prove the truth of the story, and there would be a
terrible _expose_. Yet, lonely and sorrowful as Madaline declared
herself to be, how could he refuse her? It was an anxious question for
him, and one that caused him much serious thought. Had he known how ill
she was he would not have hesitated a moment.
He wrote to Madaline--how the letter was received and cherished no one
but herself knew--and told her that he would be in England in a day or
two, and would then give her a decided answer.
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