Published in The Windsor Magazine, December 1900
Reprinted in Bensoniana No. 2 (Hermitage Books, 1993)
3,930 words
(First read 03/04/14)
Another preposterous EFB heroine does the noble thing ... Actually, this one's doubly preposterous in that not only is she the cynosure of London society and (we're told) kind to the poor but ~ for crying out loud ~ she's Russian to boot! Marie Laridoff is a 24-year-old divorcée, stinking-rich for no particular reason, in love, for reasons not explained, with diplomat Sir Herbert Vivian (40). Her love is requited but, also for reasons not explained, she's vowed never to remarry until the death of her first husband, who ~ no, I swear I'm not making this up! ~ rather bizarrely got her implicated in a revolutionary plot and banished from Russia ... ermm ... so as to be able to divorce her ... or something ~ details are sketchy, at best. Anyway, in the best traditions of Bensonian and other fiction, the news that Hubby No. 1 has popped his clogs¹ and the news that Herb has landed the plum job of ambassador to Petersburg happen to arrive on the same day, and obviously Marie can't blah blah yadda yadda ... the usual. The story is available online here.
¹ I daresay he was run over by a 'bus.
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