She had been a gentle, loving woman once, before John Alvin had come across her path.
A pretty young widow, earning her living by hard work, her heart had responded only too readily to the charm of John Alvin. She had fallen a victim to him and was ruined before she discovered that he had a wife.
John Alvin’s legitimate and illegitimate daughters had been born near about the same time.
John Alvin had forsaken the woman he had wronged, and left her to her fate.
Aimée had been born a beautiful child, but weak-minded.
For eighteen years Mrs. Le Breton had supported herself and her afflicted child by mending shoes! She had found that so she could best make a living, and at the same time remain at home. Home? It had merely been a two-roomed “shack.”
For eighteen years she had nursed her hatred against John Alvin—John Alvin, who had grown rich, and had a house in Montreal, and could send his daughter Eweretta to a fine school, and could take her to visit London.
Mrs. Le Breton kept herself informed of the movements of John Alvin. She rejoiced when his wife died. She also nursed for a brief space the hope that then he would remember the mother of his other child and do her justice.
With infinite difficulty she journeyed with her daughter to Montreal to be spurned by John Alvin, and sent back to her boot-mending.
It was then she had seen Eweretta and been struck by the appalling likeness she bore to Aimée.