But Lady Estelle hid her face.
"Ulric," she said to her husband, "will you tell for me?"
They listened with a shock of horror and surprise. So this little foundling, over whose story they had wondered and pondered, of whose future the duchess had prophesied such evil, was of their own race, a Hereford. It seemed to the duke and duchess that they could never forget that humiliation, never recover from it.
The duke rose from his chair; he held out one trembling hand to his wife.
"Come away, Stephanie," he said; "this has been too much for me. I thought I was stronger. Come away! We can talk it over better alone—we shall get over it better alone. We have no daughter now, dear—we are quite alone. Our daughter has been some one else's wife for twenty years. Come away!"
The duchess, since Lord Linleigh had told Doris' story, had never once looked at her daughter. She seemed the stronger of the two as they turned to quit the room together. The duke, never speaking to his daughter, said to his guest:
"I will talk this over with my wife, and we will tell you after dinner what is our decision."
"Oh, Ulric!" cried Lady Estelle, "they will never forgive me. What shall I do?"
But he kissed her face and consoled her.
"It will all come right," he said. "Of course it was a terrible shock to them both, that Brackenside business especially. I am very sorry over that; but they will forgive you. By this time to-morrow we shall all be laughing over it, trust me, darling."