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The bewildered bride was too humiliated to confide in anyone, would not hurt her strict Philadelphia parents with the scandal of a divorce. Devoted and attentive in public, Lehr made her a social favorite. They took part in social life during its most ostentatious period, attended the Harriman ball that cost $100,000, the $200,000 James Hyde ball that became a great scandal, caused Hyde's disgrace. For that ball Sherry's was made over by Stanford White as a reproduction of the court of Louis XVI; Réjane was imported from France to recite Racine; the floor of the supper-room was strewn with rose petals. Lehr made more gossip at the ball by refusing diamond-back terrapin and the finest wines, eating only hard-boiled eggs and drinking only cold milk.
Life in Newport, Saratoga, New York, Paris, was a round of extreme, extravagant, vulgar display, lit occasionally with sulphurous scandals, with conflicts that ended in tragedy or madness. The John Drexels had 26 carriages. Mrs. Drexel had ropes of pearls made into a Sam Brown belt. Moral standards were confused. Once James Van Alen picked up a local charmer and brought her home with him, outraged Newport ladies who broke their engagements for lunch. Mr. Van Alen's strict daughter refused to make the girl welcome, but agreed to lunch with her for $10,000.
Grand Duke Boris said Newport society was the most luxurious he had ever seen. His visit brought to a head the quarrel between Mrs. Goelet and Mrs. Fish, who were fighting over young Jimmie Cutting. Mrs. Goelet entertained the Grand Duke at her home. Mrs. Fish invited guests to meet the Grand Duke at a dinner and ball, but refused to include Jimmie Cutting. Mrs. Goelet demanded that he be invited. Mrs. Fish refused. Mrs. Goelet therefore would not let the Grand Duke attend the Fish party given in his honor. Unwilling to disappoint guests anxious to see royalty, Harry Lehr masqueraded as the Tsar of Russia, made a joke of the conflict, amused the absent Grand Duke.
Undisciplined, purposeless, irresponsible, the great names in "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age careen from vulgarity to greater vulgarity, while poseurs prey on ignorance and snobbishness, social climbers spend fortunes trying to get accepted. Elizabeth Drexel Lehr fell in love, waited until after her mother's death to plan her divorce. Then her lover died. Harry Lehr had quieted down, showed symptoms of acute melancholia before the War, which finally put an end to his way of life. He grew more & more morose; his mind slowly failed; he became panic-stricken at the thought of his despised wife's leaving him. She accepted an impossible situation, gave him money, buried herself in War work. Upon his death he left her, as one last malicious joke, all his "houses, bonds . . . carriages, yachts, motor cars," except those in the U. S. and France—in other words, nothing but debts. Later his widow found his diary, understood for the first time that her witty, audacious, unscrupulous husband was homosexual.
Museum Piece
LIFE WITH FATHER—Clarence Day— Knopf ($2).