TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Gertrude Warden was the pseudonym of Gertrude Isobel Price.

She was the younger sister of author/actress Florence Warden.

Minor spelling inconsistencies (e.g. evening-gown/evening gown, stepmother/step-mother, etc.) have been preserved.

Alterations to the text:

Punctuation: fix a few quotation mark pairings.

[Prologue.—Part II]

“William’s wife she said she felt she’d rather have died at once” delete first she.

Change “a neighboring farmer had been commisioned to bring” to commissioned.

[Chapter VII]

“as well as other points which had puzzed her” to puzzled.

[Chapter XII]

“saw the unimstakable relief in her face, and hastened” to unmistakable.

[Chapter XV]

“into the presence of his lovely fianceé” to fiancée.

“the shrill, eldritch laughter of the hag Sarah Carew” to Carewe.

[Chapter XVI]

“Stephen’s hawk-eyes to distinguish anything Stopping still” add period after anything.

[Chapter XVII]

“He did not even see Dakin in attendancce as his pale face” to attendance.

“could hardly refrain from a little cry of admiraton” to admiration.

“to whisper and mumble the necessary reponses in the service” to responses.

[Chapter XVIII]

(“Handsome is as handsome does,” persisted the old old gentleman) delete one old.

(“Tis some trick of old Sarah’s,” he kept on repeating) to ’Tis.

[Chapter XIX]

“you don’t bear me any gruge, do you?” to grudge.

[Chapter XX]

“he gathered little but that an eldely woman named Tait” to elderly.

[End of text]