The Third Trial: 18 June 1891

Here is the London Times excerpt from the last day of the third and final trial in which German governess Valerie Wiedemann sued the Hon. Robert Horace Walpole for breach of promise of marriage and libel.

In this segment of the proceedings, the jury makes its decision—one that is as much in favor of Walpole as it is against him, given that £300 didn't come anywhere near covering the costs of the series of sensationally lurid Victorian trials.

By the way, my Phillies went belly-up against the San Francisco Giants last Saturday evening, thereby pushing me into an ever-darkening, baseball-less world of late autumn and early winter that won't lift until the first crack of the bat next spring…

The Third Trial: 17 June 1891, Part 3

The days are shortening here, despite the United States clinging to Daylight Savings Time. The sun no longer possessses any of its mid-summer ferocity, and the cool nights are wonderful stretches during which to sleep. Rising in the blackness of the night and driving to arrive at work at the crack of dawn is depressing, but there must be some important political reason for it—and, remember, the answer to almost all of your questions is "money"—so I suppose I must soldier on. I just wish I saw a bit of the money!

Anyway, autumn also brings with it baseball's exciting post-season. Once just the seven-game World Series between the National and American League pennant winners, it's now a complex, drawn-out tournament fed to the public by television networks who decide in advance the entire schedule, not logically or with a sensitivity to the ebb and flow of the sport, but with an eye toward profit.

My Philadelphia Phillies have been champions in 2008, were defeated in the World Series in 2009, and are vying to become the first National League team to play in three straight World Series since World War II. They trail the San Francisco Giants three-games to two in the best-of-seven series that leads to the World Series, and the sixth game is tonight.

Anyway, that's the reason I've fallen so far behind in adding to Who Is George Mills? Stir the daily drama of these play-offs in with (once again) hefty new requirements for schoolteachers this year (read: much more paperwork) and I've been busier than a one-armed paperhanger!

That said, I'm back today, and here's the latest installment of the third trial pitting Valerie Wiedemann and the Honorable Robert Horace Walpole, heir to the Earl of Orford. The trial is drawing to a close, and next time there'll be a verdict.

See you then!

The Third Trial: 17 June 1891, Part 2

The Third Trial: 17 June 1891, Part 1