New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 25, 1927, Page 27

Fashionable Society Puzzled to Know What Has Happened to Interrupt the Romance ung Miss of Pretly Yo du Pont and the $35.00 a Week Clerk Who Won Her Heart ISS BLIZABETH FRANCES DU M PONT, the charming heiress daughter of the immensely wealthy Philip du Ponts of Wilmington, Delaware, handed fashionable society a big surprise when she let it be known that she had fallen in love with Richard Dorsey Morgan, a humble clerk in a telephone company's office and was go- ing to marry him as soon as ever she could. And now, just when she was expected to be promising to love, honor and per- haps obey her adoring clerk sweetheart, she furnishes another surprise and a per- plexing mystery as well by announcing that the wedding is postponed—indefi- nitely postponed! Have the lovers who seemed so de- voted had a serious quarrel? Have the masculine charms that were so irresistible to Miss Elizabeth only a few weeks ago lost their appeal for her? Has young Mr. Morgan perhaps de- cided that the task of making a million- heiress happy is too much for a man to undertake on a salary of $35 a week? Or has the proud du Pont family suc- ceeded in convincing the young woman that it-is a mistake for her, one of the richest and most charming heiresses in America, to marry so far outside the exclusive circle of wealth and fashion in which she has always lived? ‘Which of these possibilities holds the key to the mystery of the interrupted romance none of the most astute gossips of which society can boast—or feel ashamed—has yet been able to say with certainty. The recent brief statement in which Miss du Pont admitted that her wedding plths had faded away into the indefinite future does not help them any in their guesses. On the contrary, her words only make the puzzle all the Emre perplexing. The surprise brought by the announce- ment of Miss du Pont’s engagement was not because the man she was going to marry was only a small salaried clerk, the son of an insurance agent, a man whose family is not wealthy and is quite unknown to the pages of the Social Register. No, indeed! Society is quite accustomed to the spectacle of a du Pont marrying far beneath the family’s wealth and social position. Both men and women of the clan have gone a long way outside the ranks of fashionable society for their love mates, sometimes with good results and sometimes with very unhappy one: The real surprise in the case of Eliza- beth du Pont’s love match lay in the fact that until the announcement of hér engagement to Richard Morgan society had no inkling of the romance that was on. It all came about very sud- denly and secretly with even many of the heiress’ closest friends not suspect- ing that she was losing her heart. Miss Elizabeth is only nineteen years old and everybody thought her almost too young to be having a serious love affair. But she was not too young, it seems, to inspire and be tremendously pleased with the love which the tele- phone clerk laid at her feet. He rushed in, and before even her parents sus- pected his serious intentions, carried off the love prize which everybody thought would be won by some European noble- man or some fashionable young Ameri- can millionaire. If young Mr. Morgan does his office work with the speed and efficiency which he showed in his wooing of the du Pont heiress, he seems destined to go far in the telephone business. It is believed to have been only a few weeks after he met Miss du Pont at a charity affair that he had won her heart and was being announced as+her future husband. Richard Morgan has lived nearly all his life in a modest cottage just across the road from the stately entrance to the splendid estate of “the Philip du Ponts. He and Elizabeth grew up with- in a stone’s throw of each other, but so wide is the social and financial gulf The former Miss Alicia du Pont who lived to regret marrying a man of no wealth or social posi- tion and recently divorced him that separates their families that they had never met until a mutual friend happened to introduce them at a dance given for the benefit of a Wilmington charity. The young man is not at all ashamed of his humble origin and as he and the heiress sat between dances in a quiet nook under the palms he did not hesi- tate to explain that he was the freckle- faced boy who in years past she must have often seen playing by the roadside when she rode out on horseback or in one of her fleet of motor cars. Morgan has long since outgrown the freckles of his boyhood and has de- veloped into a very good looking young man. He is more the type you would expect to find playing a hero’s role in the movies than toiling over ledgers and adding machines.” So Elizabeth du Pont thought from the minute’she laid eyes on him. She was fascinated not only by his sturdy good looks but by his excellent dancing, his pleasing manners and the bright things he had to say. And Morgan thought the vivacious heiress the pret- tiest, most charming girl he had ever met. Before the charity dance was over the young people who had been near neighbors unknown to each other for so long were exceedingly good friends. That was the first of many meetings. As has been said the telephone clerk proved himself a swift and skillful worker in courtship and the announcement of Elizabeth du Pont’s engagement tc marry him followed clése on the heels of their first meeting. Now this was the sort of love match to which the young woman’s parents might have been expected to raise seri- ous objections. Richard Morgan, while a most praiseworthy young man, is en- tirely lacking in the wealth and social position that are so frequently de- manded in the fiance of a fashionable heiress. But if Elizabeth’s parents were seri- ~ously displeased by her romance they were wonderfully suceessful in conceal- ing the fact. They beamed on their pretty daughter and her fiance and ac- quiesced with every evidence of perfect sincerity in the lovers’ insistence on marriage in the early fall. Fall came but with it came none of the expected wedding plans. No date was set for the ceremony, no invitations were issued. The gossips whisper that a withering blight had fallen on the romance that bloomed so rosily with the spring flowers and pretty soon Miss du Pont went a long way toward confirming these suspicions with the announcement that the wedding had been “indefinitely postponed.” “I can’t say when the wedding will take place,” said the heiress. “Mr. Morgan and I are still gaged and are hoping to be m ried some time. But everything is so indefinite that no date can be set for the wedding. I don’t know whether it will be next spring or next fall.” All this sounded very ominous for the chances of Richard Morgan becoming the husband of Elizabeth du Pont. The “indefinite” postponement of a society heiress’ wedding frequently has a way of meaning that it is never going to take place. And what is the explanation of the mystery of the sudden change in Eliza- beth du Pont’s plans? The most generally accepted theory is that the Philip du Ponts, while out- wardly agreeable to their daughter’s proposed marriage, were really bit- terly opposed to it and have been and are still doing all they can to prevent it. This seems to be a favorite strategy with modern parents who find them- selves displeased with a daughter’s choice of a sweetheart. It was the plan followed by Colonel and Mrs. H. H. Rogers when their Millicent, now the Countess Salm, fell in love with poor and socially obscure ‘“Jimmie” Thomp- son. Millicent’s parents pretended to agree to early marriage but they really didn’t intend that it should ever take place, early or late. They whisked their daugh- ter off to Europe, ostensibly to buy a Paris trousseau. Month after month they kept her there, giving her such a good time and surrounding her with so many eligible young men of wealth and title that poor “Jimmie,” earning his living in a New York office, soon faded out of the picture. By the time of the heiress’ long delayed return to America she was quite willing to break the en- gagement that her parents sccretly con- sidered so unfortunate. It seems quite possible that the Philip du Ponts have pursu€d similar tactics and have been devoting them- selves to subtle and determined efforts to convince Miss Elizabeth of the un- wisdom of her matrimonial choice. If this is the case, the mysterious postpone- ment of the wedding would indicate that they have been partially successful. The heiress who was eager for a speedy mar- riage would seem row to be willing to think things over a little longer. Can the delayed wedding and the op- position of her family destroy the girl’s love for Richard Morgan and make her break the engagement? Will she finally come to the conclusion that it would be folly for her to marry a man of no wealth or social position? Or will what- ever forces arrayed against her only began to Copyright, 1926, oy John make her all the more de- termined to go on with the love match that began so brightly last spring? For example their dav v mistake arry man the Philip du Ponts did not need to look outside to impress cent martimonial ex- perience Alicia du Pont furnishes one which most mil- lion > parents would solemn fas consider a warning to onable heiresses not to be too ven- turesome in their love aflairs. Alicia lost her heart to Harold Glendenning, a chemist who was toiling in a muni- tions plant when she first laid eyes him. He the of a humble mail carrier in Nor- walk, Connecticut— a man with no social background and fi< nancial resources so slender that it was often a problem to keep Harold and the other children de- cently clothed. In high school the boy made a brilliant record as a student and his teachers urged that he be sent to college. For his family to finance a four years’ course was impossible, so Harold determined to go it alone and try to pay his wa Waiting on table, tending furnace fires and shoveling away the drifts of New Hampshire winters did not prevent his graduating from Dartmouth close to the head of his He took highest honors in chemistry. Th Harold Glenden- ning vclunteered and on account of his knowledge of chemistry was assigned to one of the great du Pont munitions plants. Strolling through the laboratory one afternoon Alicia du Pont’s bright eyes spied the young Dartmouth man. “Oh, what a nice looking hoy!” she xclaimed to the superintendent who showing her through this busy hive of wartime industry. “You simply must introduce him to me.” > of the superintendent was glad to oblige that started the romance that turned out so unfortu- nately for poor Alicia. When the war was over the heiress followed th: young man to England where he had gone to take a post gradu- ate course at Oxford University. They were married in London Trouble quickly followed . According to allegations Alicia later made, the pos- session of a wealthy wife worked a dis- on was son class. n came the war. course and n Features, Inc. tressing transformation in the young man who had so grittily struggled his way through college. It seemed to deaden his enthusi- asm for work and to kill all his ambition to make a great name in his profession. The very qualities for which his wife had loved and admired him vanished. She declared that instead of toiling in a laboratory he preferred putting on spats, sticking a monocle in his eye and scttling down to a life as lazy and purposeless as a lounge lizard’s. His insane jealousy added to the wife’s unhappiness. He would, she said, fly into a viclent rage if another man so much as smiled at her or paid her the most conventional compliment. Is it her aristocratic family’s influence that is tearing the rich and lovely heiress away from the humble but adoring young man she was about to marry? 3 Miss Elizabeth Frances du Pont whose marriage to a humble clerk in a telephone company’s office has been “indefinitely” postponed Even the birth of a child could not reconcile Alicia du Pont to continue a married life that she found miserably unhappy. She went to Reno and secured a divorce. Is the story of this experience one that has been dinned into Elizabett. duy Pont’s ears over and over again during the past few months? Is the lesson which many think it teaches what has made her consent to the indefinite post- ponement of her marriage to the poor telephone clerk?