“There must have been a spell in Aldenmere,” so people said. This was the second fair young wife who had been carried from there to the grave; the second who had met with a tragical death. What would become of the place? Who would take care of the children? These and a hundred other questions they asked, but no one answered them. They did not bury Lady Hermione by Clarice’s side. Lord Lorriston, knowing all, could not endure the thought of it. She was taken thence, and the grave is on the western side of Leeholme churchyard, a warm, lovely, sunny spot, where the sun shines and the dew falls, where birds sing sweetest music and flowers yield richest perfume. The story of her deep, true love and unutterable sorrow, of her grief and heroic self-sacrifice, are buried with her. The little Harry was heir to Aldenmere, but Lord Lorriston said the associations connected with the place were all so sad, that the children should not live there; they should make their home at Leeholme until the young heir was of age, and then he could please himself about returning there. The servants were all paid off; they were not sorry to leave a place rendered gloomy by two such tragedies. Some of them declared that long as they lived they should never regain their natural spirits. Aldenmere was closed. The head gamekeeper and his wife were put in charge of the place. The state apartments, the magnificent guests’ chambers, the superb reception-rooms, were all closed and left to solitary desolation. Lord Lorriston declared that he never even wished to see the place again--it was so full of sorrowful memories for him. The little orphan children were taken home to Leeholme, where, under the loving care of Lord and Lady Lorriston, they grew in strength, beauty and goodness. The after life of Sir Henry Alden, of Aldenmere, was eventful, but his story has been told by pens more eloquent than mine. The little child whom Sir Ronald kissed and blessed before he went on that long voyage from which he was never to return, made his name famous all over Europe. There was one thing he never knew, and that was the true history of his father’s life. Nor was that secret ever known. Kenelm Eyrle found some means of pacifying the detectives he had so hastily summoned. They never heard one word of the truth, nor was it ever told; Lord Lorriston never even told his wife, and the secret of the first Lady Alden’s death remains a secret still.