"In herself I like Lydia as little as ever I did, but I think we have suspected her wrongly in being connected with this conspiracy, so I wish to help her if possible.

And after all," added Diana, "she is my father's wife," as if that fact extenuated all.
"He has reason to know it," replied Lucian bitterly.

"If it had not been for Lydia, your father would not have left his home for a lunatic asylum, nor would Clear have been murdered." "I quite agree with you, Lucian; but some good has come out of this evil, for if things had not been as they are, you and I would never have met." "Egad! that is true!" said Lucian, kissing her.

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good." So Diana played the part of a Good Samaritan towards her stepmother, and helped her to bear the evil of being thrust into prison.

Lydia wrote to her father in Paris, but received no reply, and therefore was without a friend in the world save Diana.