choose a few names almost at random. The last-named,
Lord Arthur Russell, was the most kindly and friendly of
men. Probably without being conscious of it themselves,
he and his distinguished wife formed what a pedantic
social analyst might call the centre of a social group.

I shall, for this reason, choose the Arthur Russells for
description in detail. They were very old friends of the
Nassau-Seniors and so of Mrs. Simpson, and friends with a
double liaison. Mr. Nassau-Senior and his family had
been throughout his life on very friendly terms with Lady
William Russell, one of the most remarkable women of
Regency and Victorian London as regards her beauty, her
intellectual ability, and her social qualities. When Byron
wrote the graceful and lively stanza which so audaciously
recommends the gilded youth, who want to know whether
their partners' complexions are real or synthetic, to wait
till the light of dawn comes through the ballroom windows
and then note what it discloses, he breaks off to say that,
at any rate, there is one lady who will always stand the
test, and adds:

At the next London or Parisian ball
You're sure to see her cheek outblooming all.

That lady was Lady William Russell -- sister, by the way,
of the unhappy Lady Flora Hastings so cruelly caught
in the meshes of an angry Court intrigue based on the
natural, nay, inevitable, ignorance and want of worldly
knowledge of a girl-Queen, the stupidity and lack of worldly
wisdom of the Court Physicians, and the blundering bitter-
ness of a group of Great Ladies -- the whole assisted and
inflamed by the baser type of party-politician.

Lady William Russell had three sons, each destined to
play, if not great, yet important parts in the world. The

-254-