flight was not named in this recital.

Indeed the Baroness claimed that he was more sinned against than
sinning, and that it was a case of mesmeric influence, or evil eye,
on the part of the depraved woman.

Mrs Lawrence took pains to avoid any reference to Beryngford also;
speaking of these occurrences having taken place while she spent a
summer in a distant interior town, where, "after the death of the
Baron, she had rented a villa, feeling that she wanted to retire from
the world."

"My heart is always running away with my head," she remarked, "and I
thought this poor creature, who was shunned and neglected by all,
worth saving. I tried to befriend her, and hoped to waken the better
nature which every woman possesses, I think, but she was too far gone
in iniquity.

"You cannot imagine, my dear Mrs Stuart, what a shock it was to me on
entering that sickroom to-day, my heart full of kindly sympathy, to
encounter in the invalid the ungrateful recipient of my past favours;
and to realise that her daughter was no other than the shameful
offspring of her immoral past. In spite of the girl's beauty, there
is an expression about her face which I never liked; and I fully
understand now why I did not like it. Of course, Mrs Stuart, this
story is told to you in strict confidence. I would not for the world
have dear Mrs Cheney know of it, nor would I pollute sweet Alice with
such a tale. Indeed, Alice would not understand it if she were told,
for she is as ignorant and innocent as a child in arms of such
matters. We have kept her absolutely unspotted from the world. But