distraction; in order to break the hearts of all other women that
have any claim on him," Lady Mary wrote to Lady Mar. "He has public
devotions twice a day, and assists at them in person with exemplary
devotion; and there is nothing pleasanter than the remarks of some pious
ladies on the conversion of such a sinner."

The letter from which the above passage is an extract must have been
written not later than the early spring of 1720, for after that date
the Duke and Duchess of Wharton did not again live together. The
immediate cause of the separation was that Wharton had forbidden his
wife to come to London where small-pox was raging at the time. She,
however, whether irked by the dulness of the country, or thinking by her
presence to guard her husband against those temptations to which he was
prone, followed him to the town, where the infant sickened of the
epidemic and died. After one great scene, they never met again.

There is mention of the Duke in another letter of Lady Mary to Lady Mar,
dated February, 1724:

"In general, gallantry never was in so elevated a figure as it is at
present. Twenty very pretty fellows (the Duke of Wharton being president
and chief director) have formed themselves into a committee of
gallantry. They call themselves _Schemers_; and meet regularly three
times a week, to consult on gallant schemes for the advantage and
advancement of that branch of happiness.... I consider the duty of a
true Englishwoman is to do what honour she can to her native country;
and that it would be a sin against the pious love I bear the land of my
nativity, to confine the renown due to the Schemers within the small
extent of this little island, which ought to be spread wherever men can
sigh, or women wish. 'Tis true they have the envy and curses of the old
and ugly of both sexes, and a general persecution from all old women;
but this is no more than all reformations must expect in their
beginning."

More than one writer has asserted that it was the wit and beauty of Lady
Mary that drew him thither. At the time the Duke was twenty-four and the
lady nine years older. Certainly he paid her marked attention, but as he
paid marked attention to all women who had not a hump or a squint--
sometimes, maybe, he even overlooked the squint--it is as impossible to
say whether he was in love with her as it is to assert that she was in
love with him. From the little that is known of their intimacy, it would
seem th