me about my father and mother."




CHAPTER IV.

MONA ASKS SOME PERTINENT QUESTIONS.


Mr. Dinsmore's face clouded instantly at Mona's request, but after
thinking a moment, he threw back his head with a resolute air, and said:

"There is not so very much more to tell, Mona--it is the oft repeated
story of too much love and trust on the part of a pure and lovely woman,
and of selfish pleasure and lack of principle on the part of the man
who won her. When your mother was eighteen--just your age to-day,
dear--she fell in love with Richmond Montague, and secretly married him."

"Then she was _legally_ his wife!" burst forth Mona, with pale and
trembling lips. "Oh, I have so feared, from your reluctance to tell me my
mother's history, that--that there was some shame connected with it."

"No--no, dear child; set your heart at rest upon that score. She was
legally married to Richmond Montague; but his first sin against her was
in not making the fact public. He was just starting on a tour abroad and
persuaded her to go with him. He claimed that he could not openly marry
her without forfeiting a large fortune from an aunt, whose only heir he
was, and who was determined that he should marry the daughter of a
life-long friend. She was in feeble health and wanted him to be married