on, however, was
provided by Caroline Marden, a stewardess.

"During the voyage from Madras," she told the astonished judge, "I
more than once saw Captain Lennox lacing up Mrs. James's stays."

"Did you see anything else?" faltered counsel.

"Yes, I also saw her actually putting on her stockings while Captain
Lennox was in her cabin!"

There were limits to intimacies between the sexes. This was clearly
among them. For a man to assist in adjusting a woman's stays, and
watch her changing her stockings, could, in the opinion of the learned
and experienced Dr. Lushington, only lead to one result. The worst
result. Hence, he had no difficulty in pronouncing the decree for
which the husband was applying.

III

All James had got for his activities in bringing his action was a
divorce _a mensa et thoro_, that is, "from bed and board." But, while
it was all he got, this measure of relief was probably all he wanted,
as he was not contemplating a second experiment in matrimony, either
with Mrs. Lomer or anybody else. Where his discarded wife was
concerned, she would have to shift for herself. She no longer had any
legal claim upon him; nor could she marry again during his lifetime.
Her position was a somewhat pathetic one. Thus, she was alone and
friendless; besmirched in reputation; abandoned by her husband; and
deserted by her lover. But she still had her youth and her courage.

The London of the 1840's, where Lola found herself cast adrift, was a
curious microcosm and full of contrasts. A mixture of unabashed
blackguardism and cloistered prudery; of double-beds and primness; of
humbug and frankness; of liberty and restraint; of lust and license;
of brutal horse-play passing for "wit," and of candour marching with
cant. The working classes scarcely called their souls their own; women
and children mercilessly exploited by smug profiteers; the "Song of
the Shirt"; Gradgrind and Boanerges holding high festival; Tom and
Jerry (on their last legs) and Corinthians wrenching off door knockers
and upsetting policemen; and Exeter Hall and the Cider Cellars both in
full swing. Altogether, an ill place of sojourn for an unprotected
young woman.

Exactly how this one supported herself during the next few months is
not very clear, for, if she kept a diary, she never published it.
According, however, to a Sunday organ, "she entangled the virtuous
Earl of Malmesbury in a delicate kind of newspaper correspondence, an
assertion havi