lly that he was determined to wed for love
and not for pride of place.

Of the rich and well-born heiresses tracing their lineage through
generation after generation of English chivalry, and who would have
deemed it the prize of a lifetime to become Duchess of Portland, the
Duke's choice fell upon a young lady whose name was unknown to the
denizens of Nottinghamshire. She was Winifred, only daughter of Thomas
Dallas-Yorke, Esq., of Walmsgate, Louth, and came of an old Lincolnshire
family.

She was a merry girl as she used to ride her pony in the Lincolnshire
lanes, indeed, she was regarded as somewhat of a tomboy, but a year or
two passed away, and she surprised those who had known her in girlhood,
to see her the most fashionable beauty in the Row.

She had a wondrous type of beauty too, that made all those who admired
its style, fall beneath her spell, her complexion was delicate, yet with
the glow of health upon it, her teeth were pearly, her eyes full of
sweet reasonableness, her nose that of the classic heroines of Greece,
and her willowy form such as Sir Joshua Reynolds would have delighted to
paint in a portrait, that would have been one more justification of the
poetical phrase, "Art is long and life is fleeting."

Her lithe and graceful figure, nearly six feet in height, with a face
pleasing and mobile, and a voice that charmed in its tone, made her
distinguished in any society where she appeared.

The story is that once when staying with some friends at Brighton she
went to the Devil's Dyke, a romantic place visited by almost every
tourist and resident in that neighbourhood. There she was prevailed upon
to consult a gipsy as to her future, and the fortune-teller prophesied
truth, for the oracular words came forth:--

"You will carry off the greatest matrimonial prize in all England," the
gipsy said, as she went through the palmistry study of Miss
Dallas-Yorke's shapely hand; "but shortly after your marriage there's
trouble of some sort, for the lines become cloudy. I know what it will
be, young lady; a terrible illness must attack you, yet take courage and
have no fear, my dear, for all will turn out well in the end."

The sequel to the story is that after the happy event of the marriage
the gipsy had a black gown and a purse of money presented to her by the
Duchess as a compliment to her sagacity as a prophetess.

The latter part of the prediction was fulfilled also, for soon after
her marriage the Du