Will you induce my father to receive my children at Earlescourt?
And will you see Mr.Burt, and arrange that half of my small income is settled upon Dora ?" But to all his wife's entreaties Lord Earle turned a deaf ear.

He declared that never during his life time should the children of Dora Thorne enter Earlescourt.

His resolution was fixed and unalterable.
How, he asked, was he to trust the man who had once deceived him?
For aught he knew, the separation between Ronald and his wife might be a deeply laid scheme, and, the children once with him, there would be a grand reconciliation between the parents.
"I am not surprised," he said, "that the unhappy boy is weary of his pretty toy.

It could not be otherwise; he must bear the consequences of his own folly.

He had time for thought, he made his own choice--now let him abide by it.