"Yes," he replied, frankly, "many times."
"Tell me how people speak of me!" she asked. "I know what your answer will be. It will not pain me."
"I have always heard your beauty praised," said Earle, honestly—"that you were accomplished and beautiful, but that you were one of the proudest ladies in the land."
"It is true," she said; "the time was when no girl in England was prouder than I."
He looked at the pale, high-bred face.
"It was natural," he said, simply; "you had everything to make you so."
"And now," she continued, "the proudest woman in England, Lady Estelle Hereford, is here by stealth, asking that aid from a stranger which no one else can give to her."
"Life is full of strange phases," said Earle. "But, Lady Hereford, what is it that you think I can do for you?"
"I must tell you my secret first," she said, "before you can understand——"
"Nay," he interrupted, generously, "I need not understand. If there is anything in the world that I can do for you, you have but to command me. I will be blind, deaf, mute, in your service. There is no need for me to understand."