Explore "The Veiled Man" by Ambrose Pratt on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Simon Vicars was so richly experienced in the ways of women that it was in secret trepidation he explained to Norah the full effect of the course of action that he wished her to follow on the morrow. He would have vastly preferred to leave her in present ignorance, and permit her to make the discovery subsequently unassisted. But he reluctantly decided to be honest, because he feared that if taken by surprise in any way, Norah might, on the impulse of the moment, do or say something to defeat his hopes. And the event proved Simon's wisdom. Norah had grown quite reconciled with the idea of robbing Lord Cawthorne of his rank and fortune, but she had not dreamed that her crime would involve in his ruin a woman, and another of her benefactors. Lady Dorothy had been very kind to her in many little ways, and from her earliest girlhood Norah had been a devoted admirer of Stayton's charming "Lady Bountiful."
So it came about that when Simon informed her of the Earl's imminent marriage, Norah was both shocked and horrified. All Stayton had long known that the Marquis of Fane was financially embarrassed, and Norah's thoughts at once flew to the old scandal.