ed too exacting in his demands to please Her Grace. In fact, the
only one of all her new wooers on whom she could smile was Colonel John
Campbell, who, although a commoner, would one day blossom into a Duke of
Argyll; and she gave her hand to "handsome Jack" within twelve months of
weeping over the grave of her first husband.

"It was a match," Walpole says, "that would not disgrace
Arcadia. Her beauty had made enough sensation, and in
some people's eyes is even improved. She has a most
pleasing person, countenance and manner; and if they
could but carry to Scotland some of our sultry English
weather, they might restore the ancient pastoral life,
when fair kings and queens reigned at once over their
subjects and their sheep."

It was under such Arcadian conditions that Betty Gunning began her
second venture in matrimony, which proved as happy as its promise.
Probably the eleven years which the Dowager-Duchess had to wait for her
next coronet were the happiest of her life; and when at last Colonel
Jack became fifth Duke of Argyll she was able to resume the life of
stately splendour which had been hers with her first Duke. By this time
her beauty had begun to show signs of fading.

"As she is not quite so charming as she was," says
Walpole, "I do not know whether it is not better to
change her title than to retain that which puts one in
mind of her beauty."

But what she may have lost in physical charms she had gained in social
prestige. She was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte;
and was one of the three ladies who acted as escort to the Princess
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz to the arms of her reluctant husband,
George III. It is said that when the young German bride came in sight of
the palace of her future husband, she turned pale and showed such signs
of terror as to force a smile from the Duchess who sat by her side. Upon
which the frightened young Princess remarked, "My dear Duchess, you may
laugh, for you have been married twice; but it is no joke for me." Her
life as Lady of the Bedchamber appears to have been by no means a bed of
roses, for Charlotte proved so jealous of the attentions paid to the
beautiful Duchess by her husband, the King, that at one time she
contemplated resigning her post. The letter of resignation was actually
written and despatched; but Her Grace, who did not approve altogether of
its language, added this