THE DUCHESS OF FIFES UNBIDDEN GUEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11692, 29 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DUCHESS OF FIFES UNBIDDEN GUEST.

Simplicity and kindliness of nature are the ruling characteristics of the Duchess of Fife and her husband. M.A.P. tells a, good story illustrative of this. A young man, invited to a tea in Portman Square, omitted to put his card of invitation into his pocket, and, vaguely remembering that the house to which he had been i ivited was one of the teens, bade his cabman drive to fifteen. When the cab drew up the young man, noticing nothing, rang the doorbell, and a manservant ushered him in, took his hat and stick, and invited him upstairs. Having given his name, the door was thrown open, and he walked into the Duchess of Fife's drawing-room, at the further end of which were seated around a tea table Queen Alexandra (then Princess of Wales), the Duchess, and her two sisters.

He has said since that it was a most uncomfortable moment, but the Duchess came forward, he humbly protesting his wish to go away, and insisted on his staying, and, the Duke presently joining the party, he soon recovered and had a delightful 'time. On leaving, the Duke told him to come in and see them again, and he escaped in a more or less; stupefied condition. Nothing, he said, could have been' prettier or more kind than the way in which the stupid mistake was ignored, and he has since, this time invited, been to 15, Portman Square.