f you do not give her to me under these conditions, I will take
her away without any conditions. Eh, Betty?"

Betty hung in the wind for a moment, then nodded slowly:--

"Yes."

Pickering covered his face with his hands for a moment, then looked up to
me and asked:--

"Would you do that, baron? Would you come down from your high estate to
our lowly condition for the sake of my poor little girl?"

"Yes, Pickering," I answered.

Then after a moment's thought, he said: "I'll sell the Old Swan and go
with you to France."

Betty took my hand, then she grasped her father's, drew him down to her
and kissed him.

So Betty and I were married in the little chapel at the Southwark end
of London Bridge, and off we went to our friends in France, where
God blessed us and we were very happy. We had all been tried by the
Touchstone of Fortune, and had won her Ladyship's smile! May God comfort
those on whom she frowns!

NOTE

Baron Clyde seems to be the only writer of the period of Charles II who
mentions the part taken by George Hamilton and Frances Jennings in the
sale of the city of Dunkirk, but, of course, the particulars of that
disgraceful affair would have been kept a secret from all save those who
participated in it.

It is said that Nell Gwynn, John Churchill, and Sarah Jennings were
younger than Baron Clyde indicates. Therefore there are many discerning
persons who hold that he was "idealizing" when he wrote of them being at
court at the time Dunkirk was sold.

There appears to be some ground for the criticism.

But in all essential respects the baron's history is held, justly, to be
true to facts and conditions, and that, after all, is the main thing.
Exact truth is evasive; therefore the virtues of approximation are not to
be deprecated.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TOUCHSTONE OF FORTUNE***

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