Year: 1877




IIngs-The Prince OF Wales and


Has FltFtattOns.


London Cor. San Francisco ChrOnicle.l


So the Duke of Norfolk-that so
devoted son Of the Roman Catholic
faith that it was so long predicted
by some he would end as a priest
and make over everything he pos
sessed in the world that he could
make over to Holy Mother Church
has at last engaged himself to
take for better or worse the Lady
Flora Hastings. The fair damsel
is grand-niece as well as namesake
of that most infelicitous and hard
ly-used Lady Flora Hastings about
whom, in the early days of the
queens married life, there was SO
very much talk. The Lady Flora
of that time was beautiful, the Lady
Flora was fascinating, perhaps alse
the Lady Flora was not above in
diligence in the delightful excite
ment of flirting just tiny little
bit with somebody else's husband,
above all when that somebody else's
husband was handsome and of royal
blood, although, indeed, the royal
blood was only that of a moneyless
Teutonic princeling and grand-du-
cal second son, who, according to a
popular song Of the period, came
over from his native land with moth
ing more valuable than his fathers
blessing and German sausage and
sixpenny piece in his pocket to
" marry the Queen of England"
At any rate so runs the story Of
many years ago. "Albert the good,"
for all that he was something of a
prig, apparently could not resist
the temptation which prompts us
less perfect mortals, "when far
away from the lips that we love, !" to
sOlace ourselves with making Glove
to the lips that are near" Lady
Flora's eyes were pretty; rrettier,
maybe, than those of the less-fair
royal Guelph, and, if Lady Flora's
cherry mouth said nay to the good
looking prince, it was, peradventure,
the nay that is liker unto yea. And,
thus, one day, it befell that the
princely and aristocratic lips came
closer together than, considering all
circumstances, was quite, quite
proper. While Lady Flora and
Albert the exemplary were "whis-
pering the soft nothings," and quite
wrapped up in their spooning, her
majesty herself pounced on them.
Tableaul Confusion Of the good
young man, terror Of the single
lady, wrath of the royal wife Lady
Flora, so says rumor, came in for
boxed ears, and never, never, never,
was she suffered to set foot again
within the precincts of the court.
Doubtless the prince was treated to
an improving course Of curtain lee
lures, but on this point we can only
hazard surmise, as into the mystic
ries of the royal bedchamber it is
not gwen to outsiders to penetrate.
1t is quite possible, seeing that the
queen had an explosive temper, that
his royal hair became thinner on
his royal head awhile after that day.
Anyhow he grew a sadder and a.
wiser man, bade % long farewell to
firtations with maids of honor or
any other of the fair sex, betook
himself to study, invented a militia
ry hat SO supremely hideous that
Punch and everybody else made
everlasting fun of It, composed
songs in honor of "Yictoria's
Smile" and other subjects, pious or
sentimental, became learly) prodi-
giously stout, bald and unromantic-
looking, took to patronizing the
arts and manufactures, Germanized
the nation as much as he could
and as it would stand the process,
and eventually turned out quite a
fine character. But poor Lady
Flora took her expulsion from the
royal palace very deeply to heart,
and many people, thinking she had
been harshly treated, sympathized
with her. When she died, which
was not until she had written .
volume of poems and founded an