not resist a million of money, qualified
though it was by the admiration of a senile lover.

Nor did she ever have cause to regret her choice; for no husband could
have been more devoted or more lavish than this shabby old banker who
used to chuckle when he was taken for a beggar, and alms were thrust
into his receptive hand. Wonderful stories are told of Mr Coutts'
generosity to his beautiful wife, for whom nothing that money could buy
was too good.

One day--it is Captain Gronow who tells the tale--Mr Hamlet, a jeweller,
came to his house, bringing for the banker's inspection a magnificent
diamond-cross which had been worn on the previous day (of George IV's
Coronation) by no less a personage than the Duke of York. At sight of
its rainbow fires Mrs Coutts exclaimed: "How happy I should be with such
a splendid piece of jewellery!" "What is it worth?" enquired her
husband. "I could not possibly part with it for less than L15,000," the
jeweller replied. "Bring me a pen and ink," was the only remark of the
doting banker who promptly wrote a cheque for the money, and beamed with
delight as he placed the jewel on his wife's bosom.

Upon her breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore.

And this devotion--idolatry almost--lasted as long as life itself,
reaching its climax in his will, in which he left his actress-wife
every penny of his enormous fortune, amounting to L900,000, "for her
sole use and benefit, and at her absolute disposal, without the
deduction of a single legacy to any other person."

That a widow so richly dowered with beauty and gold should have a world
of lovers in her train is not to be wondered at. For five years she
retained her new freedom, and then yielded to the wooing of William
Aubrey de Vere, ninth Duke of St Albans (whose remote ancestor was Nell
Gwynn, the Drury Lane orange-girl and actress), who made a Duchess of
her one June day in 1827.

For ten short years Harriet Mellon queened it as a Duchess, retaining
her vast fortune in her own hands and dispensing it with a large-hearted
charity and regal hospitality, moving among Royalties and cottagers
alike with equal dignity and graciousness. At her beautiful Highgate
home she played the hostess many a time to two English Kings and their
Queens.

"The inhabitants of Highgate still bear in memory," Mr
Howitt records, "her splendid fetes to Royalty, in some
of which, they say, she hired a