The Washington herald., 1918-12-29
in the Social sVorlo
BY MAUD MeDoUoALL.

To return to the dances Tuesday
night the center of attraction was the
British Embassy. where the Charge
d'Affaires and Mrs. Colville Barclay
gave brilliant Christmas Eve din
ner and a dance. The dinner was
, particularly In honor of Miss Sarah
Price Collier, who is to be married to-
morrow to Lieut.. Charles Gordon Fell
loves, nag lieutenant OF n. NJ. 5.
Warrior. which has been Admiral Sir
William Lowther Grants flagship.
anchored in Potomac Basin ever since
his arrival here. shortly after the
United States entered the war. II Is.
by the way, a converted yacht. for
merly the Wanderer, George Wander
bits so-called honeymoon yacht"
from the number of romances- that
seem to have been brought to cli-
max on 1t.
The wedding will be at St Thomas
on Monday at noon. the Rev. c. Ern-
est Smith officiating-a naval wedding
with all sorts of bridesmaids and
ushers. Miss Golfers matron of honor
will be her sister, Mrs. George Baker
ST. George. Her bridesmaids will be
her cousin. Miss Louisa Delano; Mrs.
Winslow Lanier. and Misses Frances
and Louisa Hoar. Two of the little
Colyille Barclays will be her pages.
Lieut.. Gordon viii have for his best
man Commander William p. Putt, of
the Warrior. and for his ushers Capt.
Arthur Snagge. r. N, British nayai
attache; Commander Trimmer, of the
Warrior; Capt. John Gregory Hope,
of the British war mission; Lieut..
Humphrey Duthy, r. N; Lieut.. Cor
don Henry Balch, U. S. N; Ensign
Harold Pierce, u. S. N; Mr.. Lanier
Winslow. of the state Department.
and Mr.. George Baker st. George, of
New York. Assistant Secretary OF
the Navy Franklin ID. Roosevelt. the
brides cousin and her godfather. will
give her away, and Mrs. Golfers
brother. Mr.. Warren DelanO. and her
two sisters. Mrs :. DelanO Hitch and
Mrs. James Roosevelt, will come down
from New York for the event. There
will be a small reception after the
ceremony at the Collier residence on
Wyoming avenue.
Lieut.. Gordon had his bachelor din
ner for his ushers on Friday night on
board the Warrior, the bride being en-
tertained the same night by the Misses
Hoar, and as many hurriedly gotten
up festivities as they can accept were
-arranged for the popular young pair
for yesterday and today.
The dinner on Christmas Eve at the
embassy was in honor of the pros
pective bride, and the thirty-six guests
were mainly of the official embassy
family and their first cousins. the war
missionaries. 1t was there that most
of their friends first learned that the
date for the wedding had been set 1t
was during the dance that followed
that the official world generally first
learned that the entire British naval
contingent stationed here has been
ordered home and will leave this coun-
try by the middle of January. Ad-
miral Grant has told his friends that
he-and presumably the Warrior
would leave within ten days" And
they certainly will be missed, for they
have been tremendously popular, and
justly so.
For the dance which followed the
6inner there were about 80 additional
guests, and everybody envied the
chosen few. 1t was. in a way. an
official party. but with rather a care
full selection of the officials whose po-
sition in the smart set is secure.
Merely being official does not neces-
sarily mean that one is smart. But at
the embassy that night one noticed
the Houstons and the Lanes, for in
stance, of the Cabinet set-the Will
liam Phillipses-or rather Mrs. Will
liam Phillips. Mr.. Phillips had gone
down South to the funeral of Walter
Hines Page; the Franklin Roosevelts.
and people like the Charles Hamlins
and the Adolph Caspar Millers of the
Federal Reserve Board-(for some
reason most of the reserve board FAM
lilies are distinctly smart-Louise De-
lano and her mother-most of the
French and British war missionaries,
and a scattering of Italians. and
good many of the diplomats.
1t was the first time the famous ball
room of the British Embassy been
used as. a ball room for years. In
fact, during the early months of the
war it was used for offices, other
sorts of war work. and when the
Readings had the embassy remodeled,
they turned that Into a spacious and
. most livable living room. And, of
course there was no entertaining at
the embassy at all except highly Off
cial entertaining for highly official
guests during the war.
And ii will be a long while before
there Is quite so brilliant a party
again. All the officers-our own and
those of our allies-were in full dress
uniform once more-which has been.
''verboten" during the war: also all
the diplomats. And all who had dec
orations wore them, which the Brit
ishers at least do not do when they
are in service uniforms. They con-
slider it very bad form, you know
like wearing diamond studs in a neg
lige shirt-although the French and
Italians don't seem to see it that way
at all, and have been wearing theirs
right along. And it must be admitted
some of the Americans were still in
khaki-fOr the new men Of the new
army have not had any use for the
blue dress uniforms and have not
bothered to get them.
But the splendid room, all done IN
in holly and poinsettia and fragrant
pine, made lovely setting for par
ticularly brilliant company that night.
and the Christmas spirit was in the
air. Nine. Edouard de Billy, who has
only recently joined her husband,
deputy high commissioner of France,
seemed almost to be making her de-
but She held quite little court of
her own throughout the evening and
everybody seemed anxious to meet
her-and,. Of course. to saw pretty
things to her. Of course. as the mid