Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/84

46 eyes on!" She remained quite unmoved, not a flutter of colour was in her cheek.

The Greek valet mistrusted her at first, but after a while was completely won over to believe that she was a genuine Oriental princess. She was entirely free from vicious propensities beyond that of feigning to be what she was not. She never purloined anything; never showed any token of wantonness. Vanity and the love of hoaxing people were her prevailing passions; there was nothing worse behind. So over the blue sea she passed to the West, and what became of her there, whether there she gulled the Americans into believing her to be an English countess or marchioness, is unknown.

Of one thing we may be pretty certain, that the gentleman who had visited the Far East, and who pretended to understand her language and thereby drew out her history, never again dared to show his face at Knole. The authority for this story is: "A narrative of a Singular Imposition practiced ... by a young woman of the name of Mary Willcocks alias Baker, . . . alias Caraboo, Princess of Javasu." Published by Gutch, of Bristol, in 1817. This contains two portraits, one by E. Bird,, the other a full-length sketch of her in her costume as a princess.