"Ill-treated and miserable ?" "Ill-treated even to blows, my lord." The earl stood as one petrified, staring at Mr.Carlyle.
"I learnt it, I must premise, through the chattering revelations of your little son; Isabel, of course, would not have mentioned it to me; but when the child had spoken, she did not deny it.

In short she was too broken-hearted, too completely bowed in spirit to deny it.

It aroused all my feelings of indignation--it excited in me an irresistible desire to emancipate her from this cruel life, and take her where she would find affection, and I hope happiness.

There was only one way which I could do this, and I risked it.

I asked her to become my wife, and to return to her home at East Lynne." The earl was slowly recovering from his petrifaction.