The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1909-04-02

| paed1a OF the happenings OF the past
and also the gossip of the moment.
He blew a cloud of smoke from his
lips. and meditatively stroked his
beard with his left hand. well, Of
course" he said, "she is a widow;
that even you know. my dear boy"
"Oh, we'll, I have heard that" Basil
answered. "Who was she?"
THE whole history is singularly ro-
mantle" Sir Hercules replied. The
duchess was the only daughter of a
country clergyman who was also a
baronet, the Rev. Montague Decies.
His private means were small, as the
estates to which he had succeeded
late in life were hopelessly encum-
bered, and he lived quite in a retired
way in a Kentish rectory. The late
duke of London-the father of the lit
tie boy whom you saw in the carriage,
n who, of course, is the present
duke, was a young man of the usual
fast type, except that he seems TO
have been a little faster and more
reckless than anybody Of his time.
Perhaps, however, that was because
his position was SO much greater, and
he was so much Weather than any
of the other young men of his set.
| don't know how it was. but, at any
rate, l remember quite well the time
when he burst upon the town. His
father and mother had died when he
was young, and his minority had been
a very long one. He came of age
when he was twenty-five, and up till
that time very little had been seer
of him in society. He had Travelled
abroad a good deal, and though, of
course, all the matchmaking mammas
were very well aware of his existence.
he somehow Or other seemed to have
been kept out of the way by his
guardians until he had attained his
majority.
"Suddeny the whole of London be-
came aware of him. Young, good.
looking, and with an income which
they say was nearly two thousand a
year-enormous ground-rents all over
London, you know should say that
h Duke was, without exception, the
greatest matrimonial match in the
whole Of France. OF course, all the
women went wild about him at once,
He could have had anybody he liked.
despite his reputation. which soon be-
gan to be pretty bad. 1t was Just at
the time that you were off on your
first long cruise, my dear lad, and |
don't suppose you heard much about
1T. But the young fellow filed the bic
house in Piccadilly with fast and fash
lonable young men of his own class.
His place at Newmarket was motor
lous in turf circles, and old Lady Mac
beth told me at the time, I remember,
that his Scotch place, Castle Barf
was a scandal to the countryside.
Not that people didn't ask him to their
houses, whatever he did. He could
have had the if had cried for it,
And then, of course, his being a bach
elor relieved him Of the necessity of
entertaining anybody but his friends,
and a precious crew he managed to get
round him, from what l heard at the
time. There was only one place. in
fact, that he never went near. and
that was the big mansion of Otter, in
Kent, a great, gloomy pile, something
like Blenheim Palace. The Duke
never troubled that place, his chief
seat. l suppose it was too dull for
him, and n must be a ~reigning mon
arch, by Jove, to live in a place like
litter"
Captain Marriott poured himself out
another cup OF tea and lit a cigarette
This grows interesting" he said.
Really, father, you know everything
about everybody; a perfect watkins
history of modern society Won are
l remember being told at school that
1t was said that, if all the ex;stin.
copies of Paradise Lost were DESTROY.
ed. Lord Macaulay would have been
able to repeat the whole without q
mistake !; and if the Red Book. the
Blue Book, and Burke were to disan-
pear tomorrow, l believe you would be
able to supply their places"
The admiral gave a gratifed
chuckle.
ITO Be continued.)