Therefore--continued the story--the young couple had agreed to separate.
Lord Arleigh, although loving his wife most dearly, felt himself
compelled to part from her. He preferred that his ancient and noble
race should become extinct rather than that it should be tarnished by an
alliance with the offspring of crime. Lady Arleigh agreed with her
husband, and took up her abode at the Dower House, surrounded by every
mark of esteem and honor. Then the story reverted to the Earl of
Mountdean's lost child, and how, at length, to the intense delight of
the husband and father, it was discovered that Lady Arleigh was no other
than the long-lost daughter of Lord Mountdean.
As the earl had said, the only obscure point in the narrative was how
Lord Arleigh had been deceived. Evidently it was not his wife who had
deceived him--who, therefore, could it have been? That the world was
never to know.
It was extraordinary how the story spread, and how great was the
interest it excited. There was not a man or woman in all England who did
not know it.
When the earl deemed that full reparation had been made to his daughter,
he agreed that she should go to Beechgrove.
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