times--and especially during his visits to the Continent--the
diarist indulged himself in digressions about people he encountered; and
these assumed now and then a character so personal, or divulged episodes
so private, that the editor had recourse to his blue pencil and drew it
with a sigh through pages which he had himself found no small relief
from the severer record of Cholderton's services to the commerce of his
country. Mr Neeld sat now with blue pencil judicially poised,
considering the following passage in his friend's recollections. The
entry bore date Heidelberg, 1875.

"At the widow's" (Mr Cholderton is speaking of a certain Madame de
Kries) "pleasant villa I became acquainted with a lady who made
something of a sensation in her day, and whom I remember both for
her own sake and because of a curious occurrence connected with
her. A year and a half before (or thereabouts) society had been
startled by the elopement of Miss T. with Sir R. E. They were
married, went to France, and lived together a month or two.
Suddenly Sir R. went off alone; whose the fault was nobody knew, or
at least it never came to my ears. The lady was not long left in
solitude, and, when I met her, she passed as Mrs F., wife of
Captain F. The Captain seemed to me an ordinary good-looking
reckless young fellow; but Mrs F. was a more striking person. She
was tall, graceful, and very fair, a beautiful woman (I might
rather say girl) beyond question. Talk revealed her as an absolute
child in a moral sense, with a child's infinite candor, a child's
infinite deceit, a child's love of praise, a child's defiance of
censure where approval would be too dearly earned. She was hardly a
reasonable being, as we men of the world understand the term; she
was however an exceedingly attractive creature. The natural
feelings of a woman, at least, were strong in her, and she was
fretting over the prospects of the baby who was soon to be born to
her. Captain F. shared her anxiety. I understood their feelings
even more fully (in any case the situation was distressing) when I
learnt from Madame de Kries that in certain events (which happened
later) the lady and her child after her would become persons of
rank and importance.

Now comes the scene which has stamped itself on my memory. I was
sitting in Madame de Kries' parlor