Here is the pledge and proof that it is all too terribly real.

This boy, whom she loves so wildly and fiercely, is that man's son, and his father, for aught she knows, is alive, and only a few poor hundred miles off.

Never mind; let it be forgotten as though it never was.

So she forgot it, and was happy.
But not always.

Sometimes she could not but remember what she was, in spite of the many kind friends who surrounded her, and the new and busy life she led.