My fellow-men must keep me; they keep others far less deserving." From that moment she knew no peace or rest.

He would keep his word; he would look upon crime as a source of profit; he would watch his opportunity of wrong-doing, and seize it When it came.
In the anguish of her heart she cried aloud that it must not be at Ash wood; anywhere else, in any other spot, but not there, where she had been known in the pride of her fair young life--not there, where people had warned her not to marry the handsome reckless, ne'er-do-well, and had prophesied such terrible evil for her if she did marry him--not there, where earth was so fair, where all nature told of innocence and purity.

If he must sin, let it be far away in large cities where the ways of men were evil.
She decided on leaving Ashwood.

Another and perhaps even stronger motive that influenced her was her passionate love for the child; that was her one hope in life, her one sheet-anchor, the one thing that preserved her from the utter madness of desolation.
The three years had almost elapsed; the doctor was dead, and had left nothing behind him that could give any clew to Madaline's identity, and in a short time--she trembled to think how short--the father would come to claim his child, and she would lose her.

When she thought of that, Margaret Dornham clung to the little one in a passion of despair.