The Dead Duchess.

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 301, 16 September 1930, Page 5

The Dead Duchess.

There were also "gate-crashers” at the wedding of King George. For the most part they were society women who bad not received the coveted invitations and were all the more anxious to not only be at the wedding but also to be seen there —which was more important to their vanity. One of them‘even went to the extent of borrowing ah' invitation card and having one copy printed. Actually she was “spotted” and ought to have been ignominiously turned out of the building, and would have been, for she had made a very grave mistake in her forgery of omitting a secret mark placed on the genuine invitation by the Court officials. But her luck was with her. The absence of the secret mark was only discovered just after the woman had been shown through the barrier. By then the crush and rush was so great that to have followed the false guest and forced her out again would have been certain to have caused an enormous sensation just as the very important guests were arriving. So she was allowed to get away with her fraud. At the same ceremony another fashionably attired woman was challenged and haughtily declared: “Oh, it’s all right. I have left my card at - home.” She was asked for her name or personal card and boldly announced: “Oh, everyone knows me. I’m the Duchess of .” Unfortunately she gave the name of a duchess who had been dead for some nine months—and the would-be “crasher” was none too politely escorted back to the crowd.