these years?"

"She has been brought up in the belief that she is my daughter," said
Margaret--"she knows nothing else."

A dark frown came over the earl's face.

"It was wickedly unjust," he said--"cruelly unjust. Let me go to her at
once,"

Pale, trembling, and frightened, Margaret led the way. It seemed to the
earl that his heart had stopped beating, and a thick mist was spread
before his eyes, that the surging of a deep sea filled his ears. Oh,
Heaven, could it be that after all these years he was really going to
see Madaline's child, his own lost daughter? Very soon he found himself
looking on a fair face framed in golden hair, with dark blue eyes, full
of passion, poetry, and sorrow, sweet crimson lips, sensitive, and
delicate, a face so lovely that its pure, saint-like expression almost
frightened him. He looked at it in a passion of wonder and grief of love
and longing; and then he saw a shadow of fear gradually darken the
beautiful eyes.

"Madaline," he said gently; and she looked at him in wonder "Madaline,"
he repeated.

"I--I--do not know you," she replied, surprised.

She was lying, when he entered the room, on a little couch drawn close
to the window, the sunlight, which fell full upon her, lighting up the
golden hair and refined face with unearthly beauty. When he uttered her
name, she stood up, and so like her mother did she appear that it was
with difficulty he could refrain from clasping her in his arms. But he
must not startle her, he reflected--he saw how fragile she was.

"You call me Madaline," she said again--"but I do not know you."

Before answering her, Lord Mountdean turned to Margaret.

"Will you leave us alone?" he requested, but Lady Arleigh stretched out
her hand.

"That is my mother," she said--"she must not be sent away from me."

"I will not be long away, Madaline. You must listen to what this
gentleman says--and, my dear, do not let it upset you."

Mrs. Dornham retired, closing the door carefully behind her, and Lady
Arleigh and the earl stood looking at each Other.

"You call we Madaline," she said, "and you send my mother from me. What
can you have to say?" A sudden thought occurred to her. "Has Lord
Arleigh sent you to me?" she asked.

"Lord Arleigh!" he repeated, in wonder. "No, he has nothing to do with
what I have to say. Sit down--you do not look strong--and I will tell
you why I am here."

It never occurred to him to ask why she had named Lord Arleigh. He sa