Accordingly, on her consenting, a person to whom the cavalier appeared
to pay every sort of deference was presented to her, and the acquaintance
ripened into something more than friendship. Not the slightest idea
had the young lady of the position in society of her lover, until she
accompanied him, on his invitation, to the theatre, where she occupied
a private box, when she was surprised at the ceremony with which she
was treated, and at observing that every eye and every lorgnette in
the house were directed towards her in the course of the evening. She
accepted this as a tribute to her beauty. Finding that she could go
again to the theatre when she pleased, and occupy the same box, she
availed herself of this opportunity with a female friend, and was not
a little astonished at being addressed as Her Royal Highness. She then
discovered that the individual into whose affections she had insinuated
herself was the son of the King, the Duke of York, who had not long
before united himself to a lady, for whom she had been mistaken.
Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke was soon reconciled to the thought of being the
wife of a prince by the left hand, particularly as she found herself
assiduously courted by persons of the highest rank, and more especially
by military men. A large house in a fashionable street was taken for
her, and an establishment on a magnificent scale gave her an opportunity
of surrounding herself with persons of a sphere far beyond anything
she could in her younger days have dreamt of; her father having been
in an honourable trade, and her husband being only a captain in a marching
regiment.
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