The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-18

-SO vUEy IHf BW6yS Ele
 Is seated beside Miss Merely Fret 1 ty. And the dinner pro. ceeds.
 Copyright, 182z, in United States and Great Britain by the North American Newspaper Alliance. All rights reserved). l By MRS. ANONYMOUS t
 I can understand fame. can un- derstand eputation--which, according to the dictionaries, is different. am able to see why the faces of certain peo- pie are almost instantly recognizable in all parts of the world--people like Lloyd George, Mary Pickford and the Prince of Wales. can diniy compre- hend the electrifying greatness of a per sonality that registers by merely link ing two letters-T. R" But when a woman, whose chief claim to distinction rests solely on marriage can, by merely appearing as a private guest at din ner, start pAlpitation in the hearts of a thousand New Workers who represent all shades of social and political per suasion--that is a point in crowd psy- chology I'd like to have explained to me. l And that's what Mrs. Philip Lydig.- nee de Costa, later Stokes, now Lydig, and maybe some day Grant--did the other night at the League of Nations non partisan association dinner in the gilded, flae-draped ball room of the Bilt- more hotel.
 As everybody knows, Mrs. Lydig is the admitted fiancee of the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant, the brilliant and daring rector of the Church of the Ascension in the diocese of New York. As every body knows, also, Bishop Manning has taken the stand that the marriage can not properly take place within the church since Mrs. Lydig has been twice divorced?
 Win It, Some Day?
 But what everybody does not know, and what everybody would give worlds to find out, is this will the marriage take place in defiance of the bishops edict?.
 Even the gossips could never find any thing serioussto. say against Rita de Costa. She was but a child when she married the very much older Mir. Stokes, and for the unhappiness that fol- lowed she could scarcely be blamed. Her subsequent marriage with Captain Philip Lydig was hardly more fortunate for her.
 Often Mrs. Lydig has used her posi- tion and her money for worth while things. She was a patron of the cele- brated Zuloaga, and his striking DOT trait of her has been much admired It was through her that he came to America. During the war she took the lead in more than one of the speetacu- larly successful war benefits. Rita de Costa has always had warm heart and clear brain. Doesn't 1t seem too bad, now that she seems to have come with in sight of happiness, that mere bish- op should raise a staying hand Poor Rita. Poor Percy, born back in the distant sixties and with never wife to his credit
 Every Sunday morning, Mrs. Lydig slips quietly into rear pew of the fashionable Church of the Ascension, down on Fifth avenue, and listens in on Dr. Grants sermon. Just before the recessional she slips out again, moves swiftly across the pavement to her waiting car, and disappears.
 The pair are often seen motoring to- gether.
 And There Was No Place
 But even SO, Mrs Frank Vanderlip and the other socially prominent wom- en who are responsible for the non partisan dinner appeared to have reck- oned without Mrs. Lydig. Dr. Grant was one of the speakers, and there was nice, perfectly comfortable and very conspicuous seat provided for him, alongside pretty young woman with a white wreath encircling her dark hair. But there was no seat at that table for Mrs. Lydig!
 The stage was all set A thousand or more guests had found their tables. Mrs. Vanderlip made an attractive pie ture in the center of the long table on the raised platform. She was wearing a low cut rose-colored velvet gown.
 Suddenly a fluttering sensation shot through the room. Instinctively all eyes turned on a commanding pair who appeared to dominate the scenery at the entrance, now fairly well cleared of arriving guests. Somehow Dr. Grant and his lady lowered above everything and everybody. Nobody else seemed to matter, once they had Arrived. Both held their heads very high. Both ap- peared from a superior level. They stood there for some moments, poised but evidently ncertain--just looking and being looked at. The throng gazed. Such a treat! So unexpected, you know
 What was going on behind the scenes or inside of peoples minds I cannot tell, but from the vantage point of a mere guest holding a numbered ticket it didn't appear that there was any organized effort among the powers that were that night toward making place at the speakers table for the unex- pected lady guest.
 But He Didn't Do It
 If Dr. Grant had only refused to sit there without her 1t would have been too delicious for words. In fact, everybody agrees that what we need to make great movements move Is dra- ma, and if Dr. Grant only had done that, the future of the League of Ma tions would have been assured. Think of the publicity
 But he didn't do it. They took her away before his eyes to the opposite side of the room. where somebody moved up to make a place at the long table on n raised platform where the representatives from the various for eign countries were seated. As this table was opposite the speakers table, Rita was obliged to see a good deal of the pretty lady with the white wreath in her hair who concentrated her at tention on entertaining the Rev. Percy. She must have been the wife of one of the celebrities, for she had that long