Had bless'd one's life with true believing."

Lord Cairnforth did not think this at the time, but he learned to do so
afterward. He learned, when time brought round its divine amende,
neither to reproach himself so bitterly, nor to blame others; and he
knew it was better to accept any sad earthly lot, any cruelty, deceit,
or wrong inflicted by others, than to have hardened his heart against
any living soul by acts of causeless suspicion or deliberate injustice.

Meanwhile, the marriage was accomplished. All that Helen's fondest
friend could do was to sit and watch the event of things, as the earl
determined to watch--silently, but with a vigilance that never slept.
Not passively neither. He took immediate steps, by means which his
large fortune and now wide connection easily enable him to employ, to
find out exactly the position of Helen's husband, both his present
circumstances, and, so far as was possible, his antecedents, at home or
abroad. For after the discovery of so many atrocious, deliberate lies,
every fact that Captain Bruce had stated concerning himself remained
open to doubt.

However, the lies were apparently that sort of falsehood which springs
from a brilliant imagination, a lax conscience, and a ready tongue--
prone to say whatever comes easiest and upper most. Also, because
probably following the not uncommon Jesuitical doctrine that the end
justifies the means, he had, for whatever reason he best knew,
determined to marry Helen Cardross, and took his own measures
accordingly.

The main facts of his self-told history turned out to be correct. He
was certainly the identical Ernest Henry Bruce, only surviving son of
Colonel Bruce, and had undoubtedly been in India, a captain in the
Company's service. His medals were veritable--won by creditable
bravery. No absolute moral turpitude could be discovered concerning him
--only a careless, reckless life; and utter indifference to debt; and
a convenient readiness to live upon other people's money rather than his
own--qualities not so rare, or so sharply judged in the world at
large, as they were likely to be by the little world of innocent, honest
Cairnforth.

And yet he was young--he had married a good wife--he might mend.
At present, plain and indisputable, his character stood--
good-natured, kindly--perhaps not even unlovable--but destitute of
the very foundations of all that constitutes worth in a man--or woman
either--truthfulness, independe