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Updated: July 21, 2025
"I will take you to her, sir," was the reply "at once, if you will go." "I will not lose a minute," said the earl, hastily. "It is time, Mrs. Dornham, that you knew my name, and my daughter's also. I am the Earl of Mountdean, and she is Lady Madaline Charlewood." On hearing this, Margaret Dornham was more frightened than ever. She rose from her knees and stood before him.
"For my beloved wife whom Heaven has taken from me." But he remembered the probable consequence of such a shock to his father, and replied, quietly: "For one of my friends, father one whom you did not know." And Lord Mountdean did not suspect. Another time the old earl placed his arm round his son's neck. "How I wish, Hubert," he said, "that your mother had lived to see you a grown man!
I left my child, under the doctor's care, with a nurse, having arranged to pay so much per annum for her, and intending when I returned to England to take her home to Wood Lynton as my heiress. My father, contrary to the verdict of the physicians, lingered about three years. Then he died, and I became Earl of Mountdean. The first thing I did was to hurry to Castledene.
"I should have no resource but to tell you to act as you have done," replied the earl; "no matter what pain and sorrow it entailed you could not have done otherwise." "I thought you would agree with me. And now, Mountdean, tell me, do you see any escape from my difficulty?" "I do not, indeed," replied the earl.
There was hope then for his little Madaline hope that in time she would win the old earl's heart, and prevent his grieving over the unfortunate marriage. For two years and a half the Earl of Mountdean lingered; the fair Italian clime, the warmth, the sunshine, the flowers, all seemed to join in giving him new life.
Mrs. Dornham came hurrying in. "Look!" said Lord Mountdean. "I have been as careful as I could, but that is your work." Margaret Dornham knelt by the side of the senseless girl. "I would give my life to undo my past folly," she said. "Oh, my lord, can you ever forgive me?"
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.
Wondering what had happened, Lord Arleigh opened the note and read: "My Dear Lord Arleigh: Something too wonderful for me to set down in words has happened. I am at the Dower House, Winiston. Come at once, and lose no time. Mountdean." "At the Dower House?" mused Lord Arleigh. "What can it mean?" "Did the Earl of Mountdean send this himself?" he said to the man. "Yes, my lord.
So it was arranged; and there were few happier women than Margaret Dornham when she heard the news. "I thought," she sobbed, in a broken voice, "that I should never be forgiven; and now I find that I am to be always near to the child for whose love I would have sacrificed the world." Lord Mountdean insisted on the fullest publicity being given to Madaline's abduction.
Margaret answered quickly. "She is like her; but, to my mind, she is a thousand times fairer." They reached the principal hotel at Lynton, and Lord Mountdean called hastily for a carriage. Not a moment was to be lost time pressed. "You know the way," he said to Margaret, "will you direct the driver?"
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