Well then--and I must premise that I am going, perforce, to rake up thevery scandal which my dear Lady Burlesdon wishes forgotten--in the year1733, George II sitting then on the throne, peace reigning for the moment,and the King and the Prince of Wales being not yet at loggerheads, therecame on a visit to the English Court a certain prince, who was afterwardsknown to history as Rudolf the Third of Ruritania. The prince was a tall,handsome young fellow, marked (maybe marred, it is not for me to say) bya somewhat unusually long, sharp and straight nose, and a mass of dark red hair--in fact, the nose and the hair which have stamped the Elphbergstime out of mind. He stayed some months in England, where he was mostcourteously received; yet, in the end, he left rather under a cloud. For hefought a duel (it was considered highly well bred of him to waive allquestion of his rank) with a nobleman, well known in the society of theday, not only for his own merits, but as the husband of a very beautifulwife. In that duel Prince Rudolf received a severe wound, and, recoveringtherefrom, was adroitly smuggled off by the Ruritanian ambassador, whohad found him a pretty handful. The nobleman was not wounded in theduel; but the morning being raw and damp on the occasion of the meeting,he contracted a severe chill, and, failing to throw it off, he died some sixmonths after the departure of Prince Rudolf, without having found leisureto adjust his relations with his wife--who, after another two months, borean heir to the title and estates of the family of Burlesdon. This lady wasthe Countess Amelia, whose picture my sister-in-law wished to removefrom the drawing-room in Park Lane; and her husband was James, fifthEarl of Burlesdon and twenty-second Baron Rassendyll, both in thepeerage of England, and a Knight of the Garter. As for Rudolf, he wentback to Ruritania, married a wife, and ascended the throne, whereon hisprogeny in the direct line have sat from then till this very hour--with oneshort interval. And, finally, if you walk through the Kobe 8 Shoes For Sale picture galleries atBurlesdon, among the fifty portraits or so of the last century and a half,you will find five or six, including that of the sixth earl, distinguished bylong, sharp, straight noses and a quantity of dark-red hair; these five or sixhave also blue eyes, whereas among the Rassendylls dark eyes are thecommoner.
That is the explanation, and I am glad to have finished it: theblemishes on honourable lineage are a delicate subject, KD 4 Shoes For Sale and certainly thisheredity we hear so much about is the finest scandalmonger in the world;it laughs at discretion, and writes strange entries between the lines of the"Peerages".