That woman with the sunny smile, laying back in the drag, toying with her fan—Mabel Grey—was, five years ago, a wretchedly-paid working girl, who eked out an existence as a shoe-binder, in a shop in Oxford street, London, on a pittance of seven shillings a week. Now, the diamonds on her fingers would purchase a comfortable villa, and around her throat, which is white as alabaster, is a necklace of pearls, that cost the Prince of Wales five thousand pounds, it is said. She rides every day in Rotten Row, the famous ride and fashionable drive in Hyde Park, and her skirts often touch the garments of the Princess of Wales as they pass each other in the crowded Row. And certainly the Princess has no reason to look pleasantly at Mabel Grey. Mother to five children, and daughter of the Vikings, with clear, unsullied Norse blood in her veins, she may well question herself, when alone, "Why did I marry a profligate and blackguard?"
Mabel Grey is the original of Boucicault's "Formosa," and it was she who gave a name to Dan Godfrey's famous "Mabel Waltz." Godfrey is the leader of the Guard's band, and the musician thought that it would be received as a delicate compliment by his aristocratic patrons, to call a delicious piece of dance music by the Christian name of the chief of England's Hetairæ.
In every shop-window the features of Mabel Grey are flaunted at one along with the portraits of Nillson, Patti, the Queen, the Princess of Wales, and other virtuous and good women. You may meet her and "Anonyma" at the Opera, at the Chiswick Flower Show, at Kensington Gardens, and other fashionable resorts, mingling unrebuked among the noblest ladies in the land. She has a sumptous villa at St. John's Wood, Brompton, a suburb of London, and in her stables are constantly kept twelve to fifteen blooded animals for the saddle or for driving—these horses being the gifts of her numerous aristocratic admirers. She dines off dishes of silver and gold, and has a host of servants. At Ascot she induced the Prince of Wales to bet on a certain horse, whereby he lost the nice little sum of $100,000, or £20,000.
And it is this bold, brazen, and bad woman, who divides the heart of the Prince of Wales with the Princess Alexandra, his lawful wife and the mother of his children, the other half being owned by Mabel Grey, together with his pocket-book, which he is most apt to keep closed to all others.
She was the cause of the ruin of Captain Milbanke, of the Guards—a distant relation of the deceased wife of Lord Byron, I believe—and she has destroyed dozens of young men in their fortunes, social position, and masculine character.
"MABEL GREY AT HOME."
And here, I suppose, I may be pardoned for giving a pen and ink description of the interior of her palatial residence at St. John's Wood, Brompton, where she resides, by one who saw and conversed with her there:
