"No, it was not discovered till after her departure. Her fate has always
been a great grief to us, though we little thought her capable of using
Rose in this way. She was one of the Hathertons. You must remember the
name, and the pretty picturesque hovel on the Heath."
"The squatters that were such a grievance to my uncle. Always suspected
of poaching, and never caught."
"Exactly. Most of the girls turned out ill, but this one, the youngest,
was remarkably intelligent and attractive at school. I remember making
an excuse for calling her into the garden for you to see and confess
that English beauty exceeded Scottish, and you called her a gipsy and
said we had no right to her."
"So it was those big black eyes that had that fiendish malice in them!"
"Ah! if she fell into Maddox's hands, I wonder the less. She showed an
amount of feeling about my illness that won Ailie's heart, and we had
her for a little handmaid to help my nurse. Then, when we broke up from
home, we still kept her, and every one used to be struck with her looks
and manner. She went on as well as possible, and Lucy set her heart on
having her in the nursery. And when the upper nurse went away, she
had the whole care of Rose. We heard only of her praises till, to
our horror, we found she had been sent away in disgrace at a moment's
warning. Poor Lucy was young, and so much shocked as only to think of
getting her out of the house, not of what was to become of her, and all
we could learn was that she never went home."
"How long was this before the crash?"
"It was only a few weeks before the going abroad, but they had been
absent nearly a year. No doubt Maddox must have made her aid in his
schemes. You say Rose saw him?"
"So she declares, and there is an accuracy of memory about her that I
should trust to. Should you or Alison know him?"
"No, we used to think it a bad sign that Edward never showed him to us.
I remember Alison being disappointed that he was not at the factory the
only time she saw it."
"I do not like going away while he may be lurking about. I could send a
note to-night, explaining my absence."
"No, no," exclaimed Ermine, "that would be making me as bad as poor
little Rose. If he be here ever so much he has done his worst, and
Edward is out of his reach. What could he do to us? The affairs were
wound up long ago, and we have literally nothing to be bullied out of.
No, I don't think he could make me believe in lions in any shape."