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.

Marion was very clever; she was romantic to a fault; she idealized
everything and every one with whom she came into contact. She had a
poet's soul, loving most dearly all things bright and beautiful; she was
very affectionate, very impressionable, able, generous with a queenly
lavishness, truthful, noble. Had she been trained by a careful mother,
Marion Arleigh would have been one of the noblest of women; but the best
of school training cannot compensate for the wise and loving discipline
of home. She grew up a most accomplished and lovely girl; the greatest
fault that could be found with her was that she was terribly unreal. She