A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1928, Page 21

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. LUCKY ROYAL LADIES. (From Our Own Correspondent). London, Dec. 22. Now that winter has really come with the trials of bitter cold intensified by the gloom of fogs, one cannot help envying the lucky people wintering in Africa. Two royal ladies will be missing from the Christmas family festivities dear to the King and Queen, for Princess Helena (Victoria has fled to South African sunalrine, where she is staying with Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone; and her aister, Princess Marie Louise, sailed for East Africa a week or so ago. She will he the guest* of Sir John and Lady Chancellor at Nairobi. Her many London friends are hoping that this elever princess will follow up the book she published on her Gold Coast experiences with one about East Africa. Preparations for the Sandringham Christmas party are going forward; it will include the four Princes, the “little Duchess,” that popular idol Princess Elizabeth, and perhaps Princess Mary and her little boys.

I THE LITTLE DUCHESS. There are many people who would be touched by a glimpse of the Duchess of York's Christmas shopping list. As well as her Royal relatives and the members of her own family, she has a large circle of humble friends whom she lias never forgotten since her marriage, and the choosing of presents for them has caused her far more anxiety than the buying of all her other gifts put together. Old servants at Glamis Castle look eagerly on Christmas Day for "Lady Elizabeth’s” presents; so do jnembers of the household staff at St. Paul’s, Waldcnbury, who remember the Duchess when she was a little girl. It has never been her way to leave the choice of gifts to a lady-in-waiting, and in selecting, and often actually buying them herself, the Duchess is always most careful to choose the kind of gift ghe knows will please. SWEDISH WINTER SPORTS. It is possible that Sweden will attract quite as many society people as Switzerland for winter sports this year. Pontresina will have' its old devotees when the Christmas holidays are over, but before that time arrives the slopes will be left almost entirely to the professional people who during the last year or two have taken a week or ten days among the snow. Switzerland has become too popular for the exclusive set. They like to make a little centre all their own, and when it is invaded by those who want to be in the swim, they look out for a new spot. Some of them think they can find it in Sweden, where at least there is always plenty of snow. BRIDGE FOR CHARITY. There are a great many bridge and poker parties for charity just now. For several years there have been card rooms at the charity balls, and the idea seems to have developed from that. Many middle-aged women, to whom a perfect dance floor and an equally perfect band do not appeal, arc only too glad to play cards for charity. They pay so much for a table and invite three friends to join them, and often they hand over their winnings—in addition to the table money—to the funds. Parties often begin after lunch and go on until dinner-time, with a brief interval for tea, and in that time a good many rubbers are got through. THE BUSY RICH. Few winter seasons have been quite so busy for Society people who help charities as this one of 1927. Both men and women have helped with theatricals, red in tableaux, danced in costume, almost seems as though a reaction has set in after so much aimless dancing, and that what became known as the “Charleston mind” is at last demanding some outlet for an accumulation of mental energy, The bright young people have always had a eraze for rushing here and there, and giving themselves and everybody else the impression that they hadn't a moment to breathe. They still do the rushing about, but they are managing to get into their days quite a lot of' really u seful effort. DO YOU KNOW? Bright young people of Mayfair arc epending hours just now poring over encyclopaedias and books of general knowledge. Most of them have been so busy with the Charleston that they have .never bothered with eross-word puzzles, and now they are finding themselves at a complete loss at the newest kind of Society party. It is known as a question and answer party, and some of the questions set by hostesses aie teasing rather than difficult. The cross-word puzzle enthusiast has imbibed lots of knowledge which is useful now. Other people have been very disconcerted lately to find that they cut no ice at all at these parties. Sometimes they have not been able to answer one question out of twenty. EVE PUSSYFOOT. r It used to bo a source of complaint among young Society men that taking a pretty woman out to dine was an expensive proposition. Cocktails, wine, and liqueurs ran away with a tremendous amount of money. Now. however, these young men complain that they can't get a woman to take anything to drink at all. He and she meet at a eocktail party, and. having taken their aperitif, go on to a restaurant or club. There ):•» finds that she dare not drink w h a meal for fear it makes her fat. She o.esn’C want a liqueur, Lccauae it

spoils the exhilarating effect of dancing. So he has to drink alone or go without. SCENTED PEARLS. Paris this year has produced at least one unique Christmas novelty in the form of a long narrow box which, when opened, reveals what looks like a row of very large coloured pearls. Closer examination, however, shows that these "pearls” are not joined together by a string, but that each can be removed separately from the box. Removal reveals the fact that every ‘‘pearl” has a short neck which drops into a hole in the box, and is really a spherical scent bottle in miniature. Each of these tiny bottles contains a different kind of scent. As the “pearls” are graduated, the illusion of a string of jewels is very elever. I am told the idea was thought out by a scent manufacturer in Paris, who complained about the thousands of francs his .wife insisted on spending on what he described as “useless” pearls. TURTLES IN TINS. In the past, turtle soup has been exclusively a'delicacy for the well to do household, and probably three-quarters of the turtle soup served in London in a year is consumed at public dinners in the six largest cities. Now, however, Australia is proposing to put on the market a tinned turtle soup that will be as cheap as many of the soups that are tinned in America, and yet will have all the genuine flavour of soup

made from imported turtles. On thel West Coast of Australia there are thousands of turtles, and the Australian Government is very anxious to see the development of the industry, which, it believes, ean grow more sturdily in Australia than in any other part of the world. Turtle, it seems, ean be turned not only into soup, but also into a “meat” extract, which, while retaining the peculiar flavour of the turtle, has also the nutritive properties of wellknown beef extracts. A LOYAL WOMAN. Not long ago the death of Mrs. Arthur Wilson recalled the Victorian sensation of the Tranby Croft baccarat affair. A pathetie and dignified figure rose out of the mists of that old scandal. Sir William Gordon-Cumming seemed, as people soon came to believe, to have been made a scapegoat. And beside his was the noble figure of the beautiful American girl, Florence Garner, his fiancee, who refused to accept the freedom offered her by the man who saw his career ruined. She believed in him and married hm. Their younger daughter Cicely, an attractive girl of twenty-three, has Just become engaged to Captain Archibald Grant of the Guards. She has the sweet steadfast face-to be expected from the raughter of so loyal and devoted a woman. DIMINUTIVE DANCERS. Mayfair is taking an ever increasing (interest in the dancing proclivities of its small folk. When Princess Mary is in residence at Chesterfie.d House she ’frequently invites some fifty children |to dance with her own little sons, who Shave a great time with their young guests. It is a pretty sight to see these diminutive dancers putting each ’other through their paces with mingled gaiety and earnestness. Recently, Violet Duchess of Rutland gave a class for her grandchildren with the d’jr.l objective of dancing and physical-cult nrc dr ill. The health-culture vogue has ntimero-.s Society disciples, including Lady Ursula and Lady Isohel Manners, mid the Ladies Alexandra. Elizabeth, Mary, Lose and Katherine I’aget.