Viscount & Friend

To be the mistress of a British lord is an idea titillating to thousands of British shopgirls. Just what that questionable position sometimes demands and how little it sometimes pays was brilliantly exposed in a London courtroom last week.

For six years, handsome, six-foot, curly black-haired and swankly mustached Robert Henry Ethelbert King-Tenison, Viscount Kingsborough, 40, heir to the Earl of Kingston, War veteran and a onetime subaltern in the Royal Scots Greys, was on terms of the greatest intimacy with a Miss Adele Royle, 34, dressmakers' mannequin. Early this spring His Lordship's attention began to wander, and Miss Royle promptly sued for breach of promise. The case was instantly quashed in the courts, and Mannequin Royle was fined costs of court. Last week Viscount Kingsborough struck back in turn. In Miss Royle's apartment it had been His Lordship's pleasure to play with model trains and tin soldiers. These and other personal articles he wanted returned, to wit:

6 (or 7) locomotives

4 coaches and freight cars

A quantity of tin track

1 electric control box

1 storage battery

A large number of tin soldiers and model guns

1 set carpentry tools Wood

7 vols. official naval history of the Great War

1 vol. on sea monsters

1 vol. on famous wrecks.

On all this Viscount Kingsborough set a total value of $252.25. Miss Royle in defense testified that she had sold the miniature rolling stock and the rest at a time when she was out of funds. The court, disapproving, was willing to drop the odd nine bob, but fined her $250.

Interviewed by the London Daily Express, the victorious Viscount reminisced: "Miss Royle used to enjoy watching the train in action. When it came to making carriages she was not so keen. I would often get into trouble for working on them instead of taking her to a cinema. Then there were all the tools for making the coaches--special tools for working in miniature. With them I could run up a coach in a fortnight. In fact, experts have congratulated me on some of the coaches I have made. One day I hope to make a model locomotive. I have never got beyond buying the materials for one yet."

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