The Uninvited Guest.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1, 6 January 1906, Page 49

The Uninvited Guest.

“At every large party given in London there are a number of uninvited guests present.” This surprising statement was made to the writer by a well known society woman, in connection with the case of a certain lady whose uninvited appearance at a recent garden party gjven by the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland at Sion House, Istewortli, eaused such a sensation.

“The person in question, as you know,” this lady continued, "is wellconnected; indeed, she is said to be related to one of the richest dukes in the kingdom. She explained, when charged, that she wished to see her uneonsulted host’s collection of Old Masters, and, not having done any serious harm, waa dismissed with a caution. “The number of people, however, doing this sort of thing has of late increased by leaps and bounds, and women are the chief offenders. Most of them, I admit, invite themselves from motives of curiosity; the visits of the rest are not so innocent. Only the other day a well-known Jewish banker ana philanthropist whose collection of eurios is one of the finest in the country, missed two valuable jewelled snuffboxes that had been abstracted ’from their resting place in one of the numerous cabinets that fill every' nook and corner of his vast suite of reception-rooms.

His wife had that afternoon been At Home to the members of a charitable society of which she is the president. The Scotland Yard authorities ultimately traced the missing articles to the shop of a small seaside dealer in antiques, w'ho averred that he had bought them from an American lady who was a frequent week-end visitor to this Old World health resort.

The clue was followed up, and the fair American, whose husband occupies a position of some prom’-, me as a business man in the Cit- . confessed to her '•society leanings.’ and admitted that the" expense of “doing the London season” had so far run away with her allowance that the idea had struck her of assisting at this fashionable society function with a view to profiting somehow by its opportunities. A long-suffer-ing husband made good the loss sustained by the dealer, and his feelings were spared to the extent that no proceedings were taken against the unscrupulous woman who bears his name. “But the real reason why' the visits of the uninvited have of late increased to such an alarming extent arises from the fashion of people asking their friends to go to parties given by someone else. This has to some extent been met by hostesses asking people to bring their invitation cards with them; but if they omit to do this, it is very difficult for them to be detected, or for the doorkeeper to know that the well-dressed man or woman who, perhaps, has just driven up in a smart turnout, is telling an untruth when saying that they have forgotten to bring their card with them “The political hostess, whose parties are given more with a view to entertaining her husband’s friends and acquaintances than her own, may be excused if she fails to know more than one in five of the people who crowd her salons; and it is at such gatherings that the visits of the uninvited are most successful. Of course, the majority of these intruders have come for the sake of be: ing seen by their properly introduced acquaintances, and many present themselves with the so’e object of being able to arouse the envy and admiration of their less impudent if less ••fashionable” neighbours when they announce, with an apparent indifference, that they were at Lady So-and-so's reception yesterday afternoon.

“The advent of the nouveau riche, who is willing to pay any price ‘to get into society,’ and whose gorgeous entertainments are arranged by the person who is paid ‘to run’ the parvenu, has given the uninvited a particularly favourable opportunity; for here there is no chance whatever that host or hostess will make the slightest inquiry, and they are more likely to greet the intruder with an effusive shake oi the hand than to cause his ejection by the stately flunkies, who are nominally supposed to guard the portals of the palatial mansion in Mayfair or Belgravia occupied by Air Moneybags. Even the discreet pocketing of a few valuables would hardly caus® a sen-

sat ion in such a house, for the odds are that the host has bought hi® house and furniture as it stands, and that he himself hardly knows what it contains. The crime in this case, as in so many others, is to get ‘found out.* “In all London,” continued the speaker, “I know of only one great house where the hostess receives nobody who is not on her personal visiting list. ’Die Duchess of Buceleueh has sternly set her face against entertaining or permitting to be asked to Montagu House anybody who has not the honour of her Grace's personal friendship. Occasionally there is an amusing side to the entertainment of people with whom one is unfamiliar. Some years ago Mr. William Waldorf Astor, the well-known American milionaire, startled London society by announcing in the “Pali Mall Gazette,” which he had recently acquired, that among the guests at a great party which he had just given at hia London residence in Carlton House Terrace was an English baronet who had eonie uninvited. Thia public slight was immediately followed by an equally public retraction and apology. The baronet was a "friend’s friend;” and this, perhaps,' is the only ease in which an American millionaire has been known to hesitate over the entertainment of an English man of title. concluded the speaker, “it is easy for any well-dressed man or woman to frequent the best society dining the London season. It is a pity that it is so. but if hostesses continue to ask people to their houses much as a

theatre proprietor asks people to see his play, they have only themselves blame if an occasional umbrella, or even a mure valuable piece of brie-a-broe gets abstracted.’’ —"Home Chat.”