Explore "Lost Man's Lane" by Anna Katharine Green on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
That night the tempter had his own way with me. Without much difficulty he persuaded me that my neglect of Althea Burroughs' children was without any excuse; that what had been my duty toward them when I knew them to be left motherless and alone, had become an imperative demand upon me now that the town in which they lived had become overshadowed by a mystery which could not but affect the comfort and happiness of all its inhabitants. I could not wait a day. I recalled all that I had heard of poor Althea's short and none too happy marriage, and immediately felt such a burning desire to see if her dainty but spirited beauty -- how well I remembered it -- had been repeated in her daughters, that I found myself packing my trunk before I knew it.
I had not been from home for a long time -- all the more reason why I should have a change now -- and when I notified Mrs. Randolph and the servants of my intention of leaving on the early morning train, it created quite a sensation in the house.