And the answer was—
“She married a man much beneath her, and is separated from him.”
After a time they ceased to ask, and the beautiful Mrs. Gatliffe became one of the queens of the fashionable world.
She enjoyed life, she gave herself up heart and soul to the spirit of gaiety. No party, no ball or soirée, was complete without her.
She was indefatigable in the pursuit of pleasure.
Lord Ethalwood smiled as he watched her.
“I was not mistaken in my estimate of her character,” he thought. “She has forgotten her husband.”
He became warmly attached to her, chiefly because her great beauty and popularity flattered his pride.
He loved her, too, because she so closely resembled her mother.
There were times too, when Aveline Gatliffe, looking around her, said to herself—