She resolved upon laying the matter before Lord Arleigh, and seeing what he thought of it.
He listened very patiently, examined the affair, and then told her that he believed she had been robbed.
"What shall I do ?" she asked, looking at him earnestly.
"I know what you ought to do, Philippa.

You ought to punish him." "But he has a wife, Norman, and innocent little children; in exposing him I shall punish them, and they are innocent." "That is one of the strangest of universal laws to me," said Lord Arleigh--"why the innocent always do, and always must, suffer for the guilty; it is one of the mysteries I shall never understand.

Common sense tells me that you ought to expose this man--that he ought to be punished for what he has done.

Yet, if you do, his wife and children will be dragged down into an abyss of misery.

Suppose you make a compromise of matters and lecture him well." He was half smiling as he spoke, but she took every word in serious earnest.
"Philippa," he continued, "why do you not marry?
A husband would save you all this trouble; he would attend to your affairs, and shield you from annoyances of this kind." "The answer to your question, 'Why do I not marry ?' Would form a long story," she replied, and then she turned the conversation.
But he was determined to keep his word, and pleaded with her for the duke.