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Lord David was courtier, with many others.
Not being married, Lord David and Lady Josiana could show themselves
together in public without exciting ridicule, and they did so
frequently. They often went to plays and racecourses in the same
carriage, and sat together in the same box. They were chilled by the
impending marriage, which was not only permitted to them, but imposed
upon them; but they felt an attraction for each other's society. The
privacy permitted to the engaged has a frontier easily passed. From this
they abstained; that which is easy is in bad taste.
The best pugilistic encounters then took place at Lambeth, a parish in
which the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury has a palace though the air
there is unhealthy, and a rich library open at certain hours to decent
people.
One evening in winter there was in a meadow there, the gates of which
were locked, a fight, at which Josiana, escorted by Lord David, was
present. She had asked,--
"Are women admitted?"
And David had responded,--
"Sunt fæminae magnates!"
Liberal translation, "Not shopkeepers." Literal translation, "Great
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