Prince Leopold hurried down, and himself conducted his sister and her family, by slow and bitter stages, to Kensington.

The widowed lady, in her voluminous blacks, needed all her equanimity to support her.

Her prospects were more dubious than ever.

She had L6000 a year of her own; but her husband's debts loomed before her like a mountain.

Soon she learnt that the Duchess of Clarence was once more expecting a child.