Here then was the opportunity longed for by Miss Wilson. She would
inform Captain Trevelyan and his friends concerning the D'Alton
family, and warn him to break off his engagement. With a refinement
of cruelty peculiar to women blinded with rage, she allowed the
wedding day to be fixed before she communicated with the bridegroom,
and then sent him a complete history of the family he was about to
enter, informing him that the lady he was about to marry was the
illegitimate child of Mr. D'Alton, and that in marrying her he would
not only injure his own prospects, but alienate himself completely
from his family, bringing on them both shame and discredit.
Captain Trevelyan read the letter with astonishment, but did not
believe one word it contained. His Lillian a bastard! why the thing
was preposterous. Her father was as well known on 'Change as
Rothschild was in London. Her mother's funeral had been attended by
the wealth and fashion of Montreal, and since that time Lillian had
been the acknowledged belle of the set commonly known as "the upper
ten." The letter being written in rather extravagant terms, he
imagined it to contain the incoherent ravings of a maniac, and his
first impulse was to toss it aside. On the arrival of the English
mail, however, he received letters from his friends, couched in terms
of the deepest anxiety, urging him to sever all connection with the
D'Alton family if he did not wish to alienate himself completely
from all his family and friends.
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