rms by endowing her with
exceptional beauty. No attempt shall be made here to exaggerate
either her attractions or her virtues, much less to extenuate or
minimise her faults; but let us at least forgive the latter.

There are ladies who call the story of Mary Magdalen "beautiful," yet
would on no consideration tolerate a repetition of even its most
beautiful incidents, in real life. If she now existed, the greatest
concession they would make would be to subscribe towards sending her
to a Home for Fallen Women; or, which is more likely, they would ask
for an order of admission for her from someone else who subscribed to
such an institution. From such we cannot expect a charitable view of
_The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck_.

It would be out of place to enter into petty theological questions in
a comparatively trivial work such as this--to inquire, for instance,
into the question whether it may not be as possible to be damned for
detraction as to be damned for adultery; but we may at least believe
that Lady Purbeck spent her later years in contrition for the past and
virtue in the present.

We have now done with the curious case of Lady Purbeck, and it only
remains to say something about the less curious cases of some of her
descendants.

It might be supposed that "Robert Wright," who was just of age at the
time of his mother's death, would be proud to bear the name of
Villiers and to be acknowledged as the rightful heir to the estates
and title of Viscount Purbeck. As time went on, however, he became
ashamed of those privileges.[104] The son of a Cavalier, he became a
Roundhead, and three years after the death of his mother he married
one of the daughters and co-heiresses of his relative, Sir John
Danvers, subsequently one of the judges who condemned King Charles I.
to death.

He eventually obtained a patent from Oliver Cromwell to change his
name for that of his wife, declaring that he hated the name of
Villiers on account of the mischief which several of those who bore it
had done to the Commonwealth; and as to the title of Viscount Purbeck,
he disclaimed it with contempt.

But before the Commonwealth Robert Danvers, as he even then called
himself, sat in the House of Commons as member for Westbury. When
people want titles, they do not always find it easy to obtain them;
but, when they do not want them, they cannot always get rid of them.
Robert was summoned to the House of Lords, as a peer, to answer the
very