He returned to England and did not forget me, writing from time to time how his affairs progressed.  Soon he entered into his own, the earldom of Stamford, finding about the same time his countess in an English vicarage.  In the House of Lords he was not prominent, though the papers occasionally mentioned brief addresses by him.  His main interest continued to be charitable work.  He was a lay-preacher, and worked much in the east end of London, throwing the weight of his culture and high position into alleviating ignorance and poverty.  He sent me interesting literature relating to the efforts of well-placed men and women to carry into slums and hovels sweetness and light.  In due time a daughter was born to him, whom he named Jane Grey; and later a son, Lord Grey of Groby.  I saw once in the London Graphic, or perhaps in the Illustrated News, charming pictures of these children with their interesting historic names.  Though rigidly a Churchman he was not narrow.  Lord Stamford sent me a handsome picture of himself, to which is affixed his signature as an earl and an elaborate seal.  In an accompanying note he wrote that the seal was a careful facsimile of the one which an ancestor of his had affixed to the death-warrant of Charles I. He seemed to take pride in the fact that his forbear had borne a part in the ancient Non-conformist strivings.  He came to America more than once afterward, as a delegate to charitable and peace Congresses.  My dear friend Robert Treat Paine, President of the Peace Society and eminent philanthropist of Boston, knew him well and esteemed him highly—­and he was the fellow of workers like him.

It is a picturesque moment in my life that I in this way came into association with a nobleman of the bluest blood.  To outward appearance as I stumbled upon him so unexpectedly, he seemed effete.  His odd shuffle and limp whiskers were dundrearily suggestive of a personality a bit mildewed.  But I felt that what ineptitude there was, was only superficial; good, strong manhood lay underneath.  His death took place some years since.

Burke’s Peerage states that the family was ennobled by Richard Coeur de Lion, and has maintained itself in a high place for eight centuries.  Privilege is a bough of the social tree from which we expect mere dead sea-fruit rather than a wholesome yield, but now and then the product holds something better than ashes.  As we trace this stock through the ages, apples of Sodom, no doubt, will be found in abundance, but now and then it flowers into heroic manhood and lovely womanhood.  My chance comrade of the St. Paul was a refined, high-purposed man, certainly a product of the worthier kind, and I am glad to count among my friends, William Grey, Ninth Earl of Stamford.

* * * * *