Strange, that nocturnal disturbance of a mind which seemed so tranquil in the day.

Or was that tranquillity only a mask which her ladyship wore before the world: and was the bitter memory of events which happened forty years ago still a source of anguish to that highly strung nature?
'There are some minds which cannot forget,' John Hammond said to himself, as he meditated upon her ladyship's character and history.

'The story of her husband's crime may still be fresh in her memory, though it is only a tradition for the outside world.

His crime may have involved some deep wrong done to herself, some outrage against her love and faith as a wife.

One of the stories Maulevrier spoke of the other day was of a wicked woman's influence upon the governor--a much more likely story than that of any traffic in British interests or British honour, which would have been almost impossible for a man in Lord Maulevrier's position.