Page 116 (2/2)

season Mr Marchant had been "all broken-up" by it, and delayed the

divorce so that as far as Burton could remember, Captain Bulteel could

not marry Lady Hilda for more than a year afterwards All this coincided

hat I already knew Lord Braxted too, "took on fearful," and died

of a broken heart it was said, leaving every cent to charity The entail

had been cut in the generation before and the title became extinct at

his death

I did not tell Burton then ofand thinking

What did the Duchesse's attitude mean? In the eyes of the Duchesse de

Courville-Hautevine, neé Adelaide de Mont Orgeuil--to cheat at cards

would be the worst of all the cardinal sins Such a man as Bobby Bulteel

must be separated from his kind She knew Lady Hilda probably (the

Duchesse often stayed in England withpity for the poor lady The great charity of herwas apparent, and perhaps she

had soirl Alathea But no affection could bridge

the gulf which separated the child of an outcast from her world The

sins of the father would inevitably be visited upon the children by an

unwritten law, and although she ht love Alathea herself, she could

not countenance her union with o into a convent I instinctively felt somehow that

this would be her viewpoint