“I am not hardened enough,” she said to herself, mockingly, “to be quite happy over an evil deed.  I want something more of wickedness in my composition.”

She parried skillfully all Lady Peters’ questions; she professed entire ignorance of all that had happened.  People appealed to her as Lord Arleigh’s friend.  They asked her: 

“What does this mean?  Lord Arleigh was married quietly, and separated from his wife the same day.  What does it mean?”

“I cannot tell, but you may rely upon it that a reasonable explanation of the circumstances will be forthcoming,” she would reply.  “Lord Arleigh is, as we all know, an honorable man, and I knew his wife.”

“But what can it mean?” the questioners would persist.

“I cannot tell,” she would answer, laughingly.  “I only know we must give the matter the best interpretation we can.”

So she escaped; and no one associated the Duchess of Hazlewood with Lord Arleigh’s strange marriage.  She knew that when her husband returned she would have to give some kind of explanation; but she was quite indifferent about that.  Her life, she said to herself, was ended.

When the duke did come home, after a few pleasant weeks on the sea, the first thing he heard was the story about Lord Arleigh.  It astounded him.  His friend Captain Austin related it to him as soon as he had landed.

“Whom did you say he married?” inquired the duke.

“Rumor said at first that it was a distant relative of yours,” replied the captain, “afterward it proved to be some young lady whom he had met at a small watering-place.”

“What was her name?  Who was she?  It was no relative of mine; I have very few; I have no young female relative at all.”

“No—­that was all a mistake; I cannot tell you how it arose.  He married a lady of the name of Dornham.”

“Dornham!” said the puzzled nobleman.  “The name is not unfamiliar to me—­Dornham—­ah, I remember!”

He said no more, but the captain saw a grave expression come over his handsome face, and it occurred to him that some unpleasant thought occurred to his companion’s mind.

Chapter XXX.

One of the first questions, after his return, that the Duke of Hazlewood put to his wife was about Lord Arleigh.  She looked at him with an uneasy smile.

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” she asked.

“Certainly not, Philippa; but, considering that Arleigh has been as a brother to you all these years, you must take some interest in him.  Is this story of his marriage true?”

“True?” she repeated.  “Why, of course it is—­perfectly true!  Do you not know whom he has married?”

“I am half afraid to ask—­half afraid to find that my suspicions have been realized.”

“He has married my companion,” said the duchess.  “I have no wish to blame him; I will say nothing.”