How comes Marion Arleigh, the heiress of Hanton, ward of Lord Ridsdale,
one of the proudest men in England, and pupil of Miss Carleton, to be
alone in the sweet, soft eveningtide with Allan Lyster, whose name was
not of the fairest repute among men?
If Lord Ridsdale had known it, his anger would have been without bounds;
if Miss Carleton had guessed it, she would have been too shocked ever
to have admitted Miss Arleigh in her doors again. How came she there? It
was the old story of girlish imprudence, of girlish romance and folly,
of a vivid imagination and bright, warm poetical fancy wrongly
influenced and led astray. Much may be forgiven her, for lovely Marion
Arleigh, one of the richest heiresses in England, was an orphan. No
mother's love had taught her wisdom. She had no memory of a mother's
gentle warning, or sweet and tender wisdom. Her mother died when she was
born, and her father, John Arleigh, of Hanton, did not long survive his
wife. He left his child to the care of Lady Ridsdale--his sister--but
she died when Marion was four years old, and Lord Ridsdale, not knowing
what better to do, sent his little ward to school. He thought first of
having a governess at home for her; that would have necessitated a
chaperon, and for that he was not inclined.
"Send her to school," was the advice given him by all his lady friends,
and Lord Ridsdale followed it, as being the safest and wisest plan yet
suggested to him. She was sent first to a lady's school at Brighton,
then to Paris, with Lady Livingstone's daughters, then to Miss
Carleton's, and Miss Carleton was by universal consent considered the
most efficient finishing governess in England.
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