She saved from her hopeless law-suit, after the sale of her jewels and ornaments, a sufficient sum to enable her, with economy, to live respectably for a year or two at least, during which time she might arrange her plans for the future.

She reckoned, as a sure resource, upon the assistance of her relations; but it was one to which she applied with natural shame and reluctance.

She had kept up a correspondence with her father during his life.

To him, she never revealed the secret of her marriage, though she did not write like a person conscious of error.

Perhaps, as she always said to her son, she had made to her husband a solemn promise never to divulge or even hint that secret until he himself should authorise its disclosure.