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Updated: June 5, 2025
"This is the finest suite of rooms in the house," said the housekeeper; "they are always kept for the use of the mistress of Beechgrove. Has your ladyship brought your maid?" "No," replied Lady Arleigh; "the fact is I have not chosen one. The Duchess of Hazlewood promised to find one for me." The illustrious name pleased the housekeeper.
You are Lady Arleigh of Beechgrove you are my wife; you shall have all the honor and respect due to your position." She shuddered as though the words were a most cruel mockery. "You will honor," she questioned, bitterly, "the daughter of a felon?" "I will honor my wife, who has been deceived even more cruelly than myself," he replied.
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.
When morning dawned she went to her room; she did not wish the household to know that she had sat up and watched the night through. Once out of the house, Lord Arleigh seemed to realize for the first time what had happened; with a gesture of despair he threw himself back in the carriage. The footman came to him. "Where to, my lord to Beechgrove?"
"He must have walked home by another route," thought Lord Arleigh; and he went back to Beechgrove. He did not find the earl there, but the groom, who had evidently been riding fast, was waiting for him in the hall. "My lord," he said, "I was directed to give you this at once, and beg of you not to lose a moment's time."
His heart had turned to Beechgrove, where the violets were springing and the young larches were budding; but he could not go thither the picture-gallery was a haunted spot to him and London he could endure.
"It seems strange," he went on, "that your mother and mine, after being such true friends in life, should die within a few days of each other. I would give the whole world to see my mother again. I shall find Beechgrove so lonely without her." "I always recognize a good man," put in Lady Peters, "by the great love he bears his mother." Lord Arleigh smiled.
The dark eyes looked straight into his own. "It is a miserable marriage for you, Norman. Granted that Madaline has beauty, grace, purity, she is without fortune, connection, position. You, an Arleigh of Beechgrove, ought to do better. I am speaking as the world will speak. It is really a wretched marriage." "I can afford to laugh at the world to please myself in the choice of a wife.
"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.
So, instead of going direct to the mansion, they turned off from the main avenue to make a tour of the park. "Now I understand why this place is called Beechgrove," said Madaline, suddenly. "I have never seen such trees in my life." She spoke truly. Giant beech-trees spread out their huge boughs on all sides.
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