His second wife--the mother of Lady Bridget--had deserted him for an operatic tenor and had died shortly afterwards.

She herself had been an Italian singer.
Lord Gaverick did not marry again, and Mrs Gildea had gathered that the less said about his social adventures the better.

Financially, he had subsisted precariously as a company promoter.

There had come a final smash: and one morning the Earl of Gaverick had been found dead in his bed, an empty medicine bottle by his side.

As he had been in the habit of taking chloral the Coroner's jury agreed upon the theory of an overdose.
Yes, Mrs Gildea could quite understand that apart from general views on the marriage question, Lady Bridget O'Hara might well shrink from further connection with City finance..