death as it was given and the
receipt of the news; in their excitement they paid no heed to it,
and it did not occur either to Madame de Kries or to myself to
raise the question. Indeed who thinks of the 'Old Style' at this
period of the world's history? Besides, I did not know at that
time, and I do not think that Madame de Kries did, where the first
letter came from; Mrs F. said nothing about it. But when the
certificate arrived--about the middle of July, as I understood--the
mistake was clear; for a note in the official's hand translated the
dates into New Style for the benefit of the foreigners to whom he
was supplying the document. Sir R. E., first reported dead on June
6th Old Style, otherwise June 18th New Style, had actually died on
the 12th Old Style, or 24th New Style.

I have always thought this one of the most perverse little
incidents which I have met with in the course of my life, and I
think it such still, when I consider how easily it might have done
no harm, and how serious, and indeed irreparable, its actual
consequences were. The mistake as to the date of death was the
first source of confusion, since it caused Mrs F.'s wedding to take
place while her husband, Sir R., had still a day to live. But this
error would not in itself have proved fatal, since there would
still have been time to repeat the ceremony and make a valid
marriage of it before the birth of the child. Here the
misapprehension about the Old Style came in. Led to believe that,
although Sir R. lived six days longer than was originally reported,
yet none the less he died on June 12th, the F.'s did not have the
ceremony repeated. But he died, in fact, on the 24th as his wife
reckoned time, and her wedding to Captain F. on the 23rd was an
idle and useless form. When the discovery was made, the boy was
born--and born out of lawful wedlock.

What did they do then? I was pardonably interested in the matter,
and inquired of Madame de Kries. She was reticent, but I extracted
from her the information that they were hurriedly married again.
One could laugh if the matter had not been so terribly serious to
them and to their boy. For by now those events had actually
happened, and Mrs F. was not indeed in possession of but next in
succession to a considerable estate and an