Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/13

Rh beheld your husband, never; he knows not there is such a woman in existence as myself; I have wronged him, but most innocently, for I was a school-girl at the time; I am his relation, and, in my heart, his friend, but I am a married woman, was so when you knew me first, although a very young one; look at me, dear Isabella, and forgive me, if I have given you pain; I dare appeal to your memory for all the lessons I taught you, whether deception was not abhorrent to my nature? At that time I was, it is true, a mystery, and as such allied to guilt, though myself innocent and blameless; 'a child of misery baptized in tears.'" Mary remembered, that, at the time to which she alluded, Lady Anne had received notes from Mrs. Cranstoun, which she had said "were perfectly satisfactory," but she knew also that circumstances, which might be so to her mamma, in a case where her younger daughters were receiving daily benefits, would by no means be so in the eyes of Mr. Glentworth, in an acquaintance of his wife's, and she evidenced a desire to separate as decidedly as the old lady. But the words, "I have never beheld Mr. Glentworth," at once obliterated all fears from Isabella's mind, and brought back all sweet and grateful memories, and she flung herself unreservedly into the stranger's arms. She cared for nothing at the