Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/243

Rh had not only dandled Lady Gwendolen Beauclerc, who was a duke's daughter, on his knee, but he had danced, at a court ball, with the Queen herself, when she was a youthful matron, and he was a slim young diplomat. And in a flash of imagination, Ethel saw herself becomingly attired in widow's weeds and leaving, by the hands of a footman in mourning livery, black-bordered cards, bearing the inscription, "Mrs. Romaine."