[Cover Illustration] _The_ CHASTE DIANA _by_ E. BARRINGTON _Author of_ “THE DIVINE LADY” “GLORIOUS APOLLO” etc. [Illustration] GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_ _by arrangement with_ DODD, MEAD _and_ COMPANY Copyright, 1923, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. Published, April, 1923 Second printing, April, 1923 Third printing, January, 1925 Fourth printing, January, 1925 Fifth printing, July, 1925 Sixth printing, October, 1925 PRINTED IN U. S. A. PREFACE “The Chaste Diana.” This romance of “The Beggar’s Opera” introduces many real persons but all imaginatively treated. Lord Baltimore, “The American Prince,” as he was called at the time in society, has come down to us with a reputation for heartlessness of which I have made the most, and it would be difficult for any novelist to exaggerate the whims of the famous and beautiful Duchess of Queensberry—or Queensbury, as I have preferred to spell her title, that being her own and (generally speaking) the contemporary method. The Duke of Bolton’s marriage I have antedated. My picture of the Royalties is fully sanctioned by history. As to the charming figure of Lavinia Fenton, it offers a wide field to the imagination, and will doubtless from time to time be filled in according to the man that draws it and the mind that conceives it, for there are few records. But what is known of her story is compatible with the picture I present. E. Barrington, Canada. THE CHASTE DIANA THE CHASTE DIANA CHAPTER I