The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-12-21
tesn1am's Review OF Holiday Books

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comfort her. I never felt anything
more and am quite miserable and
overwhelmed by it. Poor dear! She
asked me did I think it possible It
might not be true, and that it might be
some one else. But said I thought
that. was. impossible. for his dear re-
mains were at once recognized"
But all Of the queens letters were
not Of battle, murder and sudden
death. There is one she wrote from
Balmoral castle:
albert has had no sport during
this weather, but his, bad luck was
made up for by his killing splendid
stag last, Thursday, which weighed
twenty stone (clean), rare thing In
any forest and unknown in this neigh
borhood. am OF a little proud of it,
l assure you, both for my dear hus-
bands sporting renown and for the
honor of our forest!
Il am delighted to see the letters
I have received from your mother and
Augusta that you gave them so favor
able a report Of our dear Highland
| home, which after all you did not see
| under favorable circumstances"
The duke of Cambridge's morganaiic
marriage, made early in life to Louisa
Fairbrother, an actress of great beauty
and intelligence, is often referred to in
this book and her death was source
of great unhappiness to his royal high
ness. On the subject Of matrimony
the dukes views were clear and I'M
cnangeable. He held, and did not hesi-
tate to make his conviction known,
that marriage without love was destin-
ed to end in failure and disaster and
that union "by arrangement" was a
thing to be feared and detested. In
letters written when he was little more
than 20 years old he made it perfectly
clear that in the choice of a wife no
considerations Of expediency would be
allowed by him to weigh in the balance
against the distates of affection. He
was ready and eager to devote to the
service Of his country unselfshly and
unsparingly all MS energies and all
his abilities, but he claimed that his
private life was his own, to be dis
posed of by him as he might think fit
and proper.
For his marriage to Miss Fairbrother
who after their marriage, was called
Mrs. FitZ-George, he did not seek the
royal consent, nor was it granted.
When he married he took up his resi-
dence in Queen street, Mayfair, and de-
voted to MS wife all the hours he could
spare from his public life and private
engagements. If we may judge from
the portrait of Mrs. FitzGeorge given
in this book, she must have been a
woman Of unusual sweetness Of char
acter and intelligence, and it is not
surprising that he was desolated by
her death, which was only as recently
as 1890 Two days after her death
he wrote:
ITO Queen street, where dear Mr..
Sheppard gave US short touching SER
vice at the deathbed side. My beloved
one lay lovely in death, still among
us. Her countenance wac beautiful.
quite young to look at, though "a in
actual age. She was so good
and kind and affectlonate and true and
generous hearted, and my little home
Of fifty years with my beloved Louisa
is now at an end"
And on the next day:
|. "To Queen street and had last look
at my beloved wife, now beautifully
laid out in the shell of the coffin, so
calm and placid, and quite young in
the face, nothing painful about it, my
bracelet on her dear arm, which she
always wore and which she will take
with her to the grave"
After the funeral:
1.-THE lonliness of my position be-
comes more marked to me every hour
of the day. 1t is a terrible blow, which
even now hardly have realized. Pub
lie opinion all most respectful to her
memory, and sympathetic to me in my
sorrow"
Even a year later he is still incon-
solable:
my thoughts were entirely absorb
ed all the evening with the sad recol-
lections of last year, for this was the
night that my beloved wife Louisa
passed away from amongst us. o! how
1 deplore her loss. to me so great, so
irreparable. No words can express the
intense sorrow that Expresses and de-
presses my heart"