There was no husband there to await her, but a very devoted knight in the person of Mr.Arthur Maynwaring, who, though he gave not his name nor the ceremony of bell, book, and candle to the union, played the part of spouse to the fair charmer.

The town looked with good-natured tolerance on the moral code, or the want thereof, of the frail one, just as other towns, in later days, have looked with equal benevolence upon the peccadillos of some petted favourite.

The times were not of the straightlaced order and no one expected from an actress wonders of chastity or conventionality.

Are we ourselves exacting where the Thespian is concerned?
[Illustration: ANNE OLDFIELD By JONATHAN RICHARDSON] Fashion'd alike by Nature and by Art To please, engage, and interest ev'ry heart.
In public life, by all who saw, approv'd; In private life, by all who knew her, lov'd.
"Even her amours," says Chetwood in treating of Mistress Oldfield, "seemed to lose that glare which appears round the persons of the failing fair; neither was it ever known that she troubled the repose of any lady's lawful claim; and was far more constant than millions in the conjugal noose." Being thus acquitted of predatory designs upon the peace of English wives, and having the further virtue of constancy, a host of Londoners, men and women, high and low alike, gazed with charitable eyes upon Nance's private life.

And she, dear girl, sinned on joyously.
Mr.Maynwaring, who helped Oldfield to break the spirit of one commandment, was a brilliant figure in the reign of Queen Anne, albeit, like other brilliant figures of that period, he has passed into the darkness of oblivion.