Half an hour later we learnt that the girl whom we'd all been pitying for her poverty was none other than Miss Hinks-Gratton, the millionairess and owner of innumerable station and town properties!
The Teddy of to-day is a director of half a dozen shipping companies, and he quite agrees with me "that everything in this world is ordained to a certain end."
Misplaced Affections
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.
"Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry."
—R. Herrick.
The point I wish to illustrate is, that it is not safe, at any time, to play with such an inflammable passion as Love, even though it be to oblige one's nearest and dearest friend. Once upon a time pretty Mrs. Belverton used to laugh at me for warning her, but she is compelled to admit the truth of my argument now.
It was Mrs. Belverton, you will remember, who originated the famous Under Fifty Riding Club, whose initials, U.F.R.C., over two crossed hunting-crops and a double snaffle, were construed, by irreverent folk, to mean Unlimited Flirtation Religiously Conserved. The Club is now defunct, but its influence will be traceable in several families for many years to come.
The following events, you must know, occurred the summer before William Belverton received the honour of knighthood, and while he was renting Acacia Lodge at the corner of the Mountain Road, the house below Tom Guilfoy's, and nearly opposite the residence of the Kangaroo Girl of blessed memory.