"
"Oh, that is Miss Dumont--Berene Dumont--she is not an absolute
servant," the Baroness replied; "she is a most unfortunate young
woman to whom my heart went out in pity, and I have given her a home.
She is really a widow, though she refuses to use her dead husband's
name."
"A widow?" repeated Preston with surprise and a queer sensation of
annoyance at his heart; "why, from the glimpse I had of her I thought
her a young girl."
"So she is, not over twenty-one at most, and woefully ignorant for
that age," the Baroness said, and then she proceeded to outline
Berene's history, laying a good deal of stress upon her own
charitable act in giving the girl a home.
"She is so ignorant of life, despite the fact that she has been
married, and she is so uneducated and helpless, I could not bear to
see her cast into the path of designing people," the Baroness said.
"She has a strong craving for an education, and I give her good books
to read, and good advice to ponder over, and I hope in time to come
she will marry some honest fellow and settle down to a quiet, happy
home life. The man who brings us butter and eggs from the country is
quite fascinated with her, but she does not deign him a glance." And
then the Baroness talked of other things.
But the history he had heard remained in Preston Cheney's mind and he
could not drive the thought of this girl away.
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