etion of the work she had begun. She had compassed the ruin of
Granger in order to make a divorce possible; she had cast the baby
adrift that no sign of the social disgrace might remain as an impediment
to her first ambition. She would yet see her daughter in the position
to which she had from the beginning resolved to lift her, cost what it
might. But the task was not to be an easy one.

After a period of intense suffering, as we have said, Edith grew calm
and passive. But she was never at ease with her mother, and seemed to
be afraid of her. To her father she was tender and confiding. Mrs.
Dinneford soon saw that if Edith's consent to a divorce from her husband
was to be obtained, it must come through her father's influence; for
if she but hinted at the subject, it was met with a flash of almost
indignant rejection. So her first work was to bring her husband over to
her side. This was not difficult, for Mr. Dinneford felt the disgrace
of having for a son-in-law a condemned criminal, who was only saved from
the State's prison by insanity. An insane criminal was not worthy to
hold the relation of husband to his pure and lovely child.

After a feeble opposition to her father's arguments and persuasions,
Edith yielded her consent. An application for a divorce was made, and
speedily granted.

CHAPTER IV.

_OUT_ of this furnace Edith came with a new and purer spirit. She had
been thrust in a shrinking and frightened girl; she came out a woman in
mental stature, in feeling and self-consciousness.

The river of her life, which had cut for itself a deeper channel, lay
now so far down that it was out of the sight of common observation. Even
her mother failed to apprehend its drift and strength. Her father knew
her better. To her mother she was reserved and distant; to her father,
warm and confiding. With the former she would sit for hours without
speaking unless addressed; with the latter she was pleased and social,
and grew to be interested in what interested him. As mentioned, Mr.
Dinneford was a man of wealth and leisure, and active in many public
charities. He had come to be much concerned for the neglected and
cast-off children of poor and vicious parents, thousands upon thousands
of whom were going to hopeless ruin, unthought of and uncared for by
Church or State, and their condition often formed the subject of his
conversation as well at home as elsewhere.

Mrs. Dinneford had no sympathy with her husband