Several years ago a number of you (readers) helped me (re)locate a story by Argon. Well, I've (again) lost a tale I was reading. This was about an Englishman in the 19th Century. He's married and his wife and offspring are killed in a fire. He remarries a Frenchwoman. The last I recall he and spouse are accompanying the (future) Queen Victoria on a Progress. So this must occupy decades up to 1837. There is no prize but my thanks.