legion of suitors--a man broken
in fortune and of notorious ill-fame: swashbuckler, gambler and
defaulter; a man, moreover, who was on the verge of old-age, for he
would never see his sixtieth birthday again. The Colonel's motive is
manifest. He had much to gain and nothing to lose by this incongruous
union. But what could have been Lady Jean's motive; and does the sequel
furnish a clue to it? She was deeply in debt, thanks to her long career
of extravagance; and, to crown her misfortune, her brother threatened to
withdraw her annuity. But on the other hand she was still, although
nearly fifty, a good-looking woman, "appearing," we are told, "at least
fifteen years younger than she really was"; and thus might well have
looked for a eligible suitor; while her marriage to a pauper could but
add to her financial embarrassment. There remained the prospect of her
brother's estates, which would almost surely fall to her children if she
had any, if only to keep them out of the hands of the Hamiltons, whom
the Duke detested. And this consideration may have determined her in
favour of this eleventh hour marriage, with its possibilities, however
small, of thus qualifying for a great inheritance.

Thus it was, whatever may be the solution of the mystery, that, one
August day in 1746, Lady Jean was led to the altar by her aged pauper
lover, and a few days later the happy pair landed at Rotterdam, with a
retinue consisting of a Mrs Hewit (Lady Jean's maid) and a couple of
female servants, leaving her ladyship's creditors to wrangle over the
belongings she had left behind at Edinburgh.

From Rheims, to which town the wedding party journeyed, Lady Jean wrote
to her man of business, Mr Haldane:--

"It is mighty certain that my anticipations were never in
the marrying way; and had I not at last been absolutely
certain that my brother was resolved never to marry, I
never should have once thought of doing it; but since
this was his determined, unalterable resolution, I judged
it fit to overcome a natural disinclination and
backwardness, and to put myself in the way of doing
something for a family not the worst in Scotland; and,
therefore, gave my hand to Mr Stewart, the consequence of
which has proved more happy than I could well have
expected."

Such was the unenthusiastic letter Lady Jean wrote on her honeymoon,
assigning as her motive for the marriage a wish "to do something f