The scandal was quite recent,
and the Blackadder case had been in everybody's mouth. The papers had
been full of it, and the proceedings were not altogether to his
lordship's credit. They had been instituted by him, however, on
grounds that induced the jury to give him a verdict, and the judge had
pronounced a decree nisi on the evidence as it stood.
Yet the public sympathies were generally with the respondent, the
Countess of Blackadder. It had been an unhappy marriage, an
ill-assorted match, mercenary, of mere convenience, forced upon an
innocent and rather weak girl by careless and callous guardians, eager
to rid themselves of responsibility for the two twin sisters, Ladies
Claire and Henriette Standish, orphans, and with no near relations.
Lord Blackadder was immensely rich, but a man of indifferent moral
character, a _roue_ and a voluptuary, with a debilitated constitution
and an unattractive person, possessing none of the gifts that take a
maiden's fancy.
Estrangement soon followed the birth of the son and heir to his title
and great estates. My lord was a great deal older than his beautiful
young wife, and desperately jealous of her.
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