Chapter XXXVII.
The reason of his separation from his wife revealed, Lord Arleigh again
put the question:
"Do you think, Lord Mountdean, that I have done wrong?"
The earl looked at him.
"No," he replied, "I cannot say that you have."
"I loved her," continued Lord Arleigh, "but I could not make the
daughter of a convict the mistress of my house, the mother of my
children. I could not let my children point to a felon's cell as the
cradle of their origin. I could not sully my name, outrage a long line
of noble ancestors, by making my poor wife mistress of Beechgrove. Say,
if the same thing had happened to you, would you not have acted in like
manner?"
"I believe that I should," answered the earl, gravely.
"However dearly you might love a woman, you could not place your coronet
on the brow of a convict's daughter," said Lord Arleigh. "I love my wife
a thousand times better than my life, yet I could not make her mistress
of Beechgrove."
"It was a cruel deception," observed the earl--"one that it is
impossible to understand. She herself--the lady you have made your
wife--must be quite as unhappy as yourself.
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