Here the duke vegetated until the meeting of Parliament, when he went up to London to institute proceedings for a divorce.
At that time there was no divorce court, and little necessity for one. Divorces were to be obtained by act of Parliament only.
The duke commenced proceedings immediately on his arrival in London. His case was a clear and simple one; there was no opposition; consequently he was soon, matrimonially considered a free man.
The Duke of Hereward was now nearly fifty years of age. Life was uncertain, and the laws of succession very certain.
If the present bearer of the coronet of Hereward should die childless, the title would not descend to the son of his only and beloved sister, but would go to a distant relative whom the duke hated.
A speedy marriage seemed necessary.
The duke looked around the upper circle of London society, and fixed upon the Lady Augusta Victoria McDugald, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Banff, and a woman as little like his unhappy first wife as it was Possible for her to be.
"The daughter of an hundred earls" was tall and stately, cold and proud, embodying the child's or the peasant's very ideal of "a duchess."
"Dukes," like monarchs, "seldom woo in vain."
After a short courtship the duke proposed for the lady, and after a shorter engagement, married her.