Miss Berkeley was, so it is said, a child of that most romantic union
between the Earl of Berkeley and pretty Mary Cole, the butcher's
daughter. This girl he professed to have made his countess shortly after
in the parish church of Berkeley. That his lordship legally married his
low-born bride at Lambeth eleven years later is beyond doubt, but that
alleged first secret marriage was more than open to suspicion. There
seems little doubt that the entry the in Berkeley church register was a
forgery; and that, not until Mary Cole had borne several children to the
Earl, did she become legally his wife by the valid knot tied at Lambeth.
It was, in fact, decided by the House of Peers that the Berkeley
marriage was not proven, and thus seven of the children were
illegitimate.

It was one of Lord Berkeley's children thus branded to the world who is
said to have won the heart and the homage of Lord George Bentinck. And
little wonder; for Annie May Berkeley had inherited more than her
mother's beauty of face and of figure, with the patrician air and
refinement which came from generations of noble ancestors.

But handsome Lord George was only one of many wooers whom her charms had
enslaved. There were others equally ardent, if less favoured; and among
them none other than the Marquess of Titchfield, Lord George's elder
brother, and the future "eccentric Duke" of Portland, often referred to
as "The Wizard of Welbeck." The Marquess and his younger brother had
never been on the best of terms. They had little in common; and when
they found themselves rival suitors for the smiles of the same maiden
this incompatibility gave place to a bitter estrangement.

It was not, however, until Lord George discovered that the Marquess was
more intimate with his ladylove than he should be, that their mutual