1909]. The Knole Inheritance 235 



Afterwards, however, when he had become Lord Sackville, the succes- 

 sion to the title and estates became a matter of importance, and as his 

 chief love was for his daughter Victoria, whom his marriage could 

 not legitimize in England, for she was born before the secret marriage, 

 and whom he had married to his nephew, he changed his mind and 

 wished to destroy all trace of it and, to make matters surer for his 

 nephew, Victoria's husband, got him to restore the torn out page 

 recording Pepita's first marriage to its place in the Madrid register. 

 This, I think, is the only possible solution of the puzzle consistent with 

 Lionel's honourable character, the love he bore to Pepita, and the 

 love he bore to Victoria. It would account, too, for his nephew's 

 part in the affair, for there would be nothing dishonourable in restoring 

 a missing page to its proper place. The truth about the double mar- 

 riage was probably told by Lionel to his brother Edward and Edward's 

 son, the present peer, and it was agreed between them to say nothing 

 about it, and trust to chance, as the case could not legally arise during 

 Lionel's lifetime. I expect all this will come out when it is tried 

 in the House of Lords. Meynell, however, whom I saw later in the 

 day, declares that the burden of proof will lie with those who deny 

 Lionel's marriage. I am of opinion that the nephew and Victoria wiil 

 be able to retain their possession of Knole and the title. But it is a 

 most interesting problem. 



" 8th March. — Called on Margot in Downing Street, and find- 

 ing her alone stayed on for an hour. We talked among other things 

 of Conny Lytton's imprisonment and the doings of the suffragettes, 

 from whom she gets numerous threatening letters, not all of them 

 anonymous, menacing her with bombs and even the murder of her 

 children. She got one only the other day and has to be guarded by 

 police. There were two at the door as I came in and every caller 

 has to be scrutinized, and I had been kept waiting five minutes for 

 this in the hall before I was allowed upstairs. ' Even my brothers,' 

 Margot said, ' have to submit to this.' I told her of a letter I had 

 received about Conny from her sister Betty, and she expressed great 

 concern and asked what she could do to make her comfortable at 

 Holloway. Could she send her things to eat, or what? I told her 

 there was nothing to be done except to keep her in hospital, where 

 she would be well looked after, but I advised her strongly to cease 

 the war with the suffragettes if she could; there was nothing so 

 demoralizing for a country as to put people in prison for their opinions. 

 This could be seen in Ireland, where nobody felt it any longer a dis- 

 grace to be in gaol. She said : ' I suppose they will get what they 

 want in the end, though I don't suppose it will do them any good. 

 Henry says that it all depends on the Cabinet, where there is a majority 

 in favour of the suffrage, but he does not see how women could be 



