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Show ! UNION OF WEALTH I 4AND BEAUTY. .London Is Getting Ready to Greet the New Duke of Westminster and His Bride. It is the many-times related story of 1 union being consummated between jeauty and wealtn, yet it is one of the jrettiest love tales of the century, the romance of the rich young Duke of A'estminster and bewitching Miss Vest. Certainly it is the most inter-sting inter-sting story that has been afloat in dear old Lunnun" for many a year. The young couple have been enam-red enam-red of each other for some time, but their marriage was strenuously opposed j by the late Duke of Westminster on ac- -uunt of his grandson's youth. Fear-j Fear-j ing an elopement, it Is said, the then Duke of Belgrave was shipped off to the Transvaal at the beginning of hostilities hos-tilities between England and the South African republic to forget his attachment attach-ment amid the fire of shells and thunder of cannon. P.ut this remedy proved inefficacious and absence only-deepened only-deepened the ardor of the young duke's a ffection. He had not been long in the Transvaal Trans-vaal before news came of the death of the old duke, his grandfather, by whoso dernisa he succeeds to the titles of ! Duke and Marquis of Westminster, j Earl Grosvenor, Viscount Belgrave and ! Baron Grosvenor of Eaton, and a for-1 for-1 tune that is beyond computation. It was only on account of his extreme youth that the late Duke of West-, West-, minster opposed his grandson's marriage. mar-riage. Tha young man had not seen enough of the world, and though he was an officer in the army, his rank was only that of an aide-de-camp, and in the old duke's opinion, a young man should not take unto himself a wife before he was more matured by experience ex-perience than at 20, and had won some special recognition for personal bravery and meritorious service. These opinions were shared by the young duke's mother, Mrs. Wyndham, wife of the Hon. George Wyndham, M. P., who had a jealous regard for her son's future, and thought that he ought to wait at least five years more before taking on the connubial yoke. So it was with a heavy heart that this prospective heir to so many titles and so much wealth went to take a part in the terrible conflict which is being carried on in the land of the Boers. But now that he is free to do as he pleases, the new duke has secured a leave of absence of long enough duration dura-tion to journey back to England to claim his bride. Mb Shelia West, for whom all of this happiness is now in store, is one of the most beautiful girls in society. She comes from a house made historic by the beauty and conquests of its female fe-male members. Her mother, as Mrs. Cornwallis West, was the recipient of the most flattering compliments from the Prince of Wales in tribute to her great beauty, and the Princess of Pless, elder sister of Miss West, is no lesii famed for her liveliness of form, manner and face. Miss West is very accomplished. She sings, plays, paints, writes and does all of those things which smack of wealthy and refined environments and gain for a woman the envy of all that' is ideal. She is also athletic, for her name as a whip, an amateur, golfer and a swimmer is almost as far-famed as is the renown of her beauty and grace. Like th? majority of the women of her set. Miss West has a fad. Her hobby is to don an old gown and go among the poor London, giving them assistance incognito. She does a great deal of this sort of work and gives largely to charitable enterprises; but as her donations are contributed anonymously, anony-mously, no one is the wiser except the most intimate of her friends. As the Duchess of Westminster, Miss West will enjoy an immense income. With his new title his grace, the young duke, came into possession of miles of land in every section of London and a large number of houses situated respectively re-spectively in Grosvenor place, Belgrave Bel-grave gquare and Ebury street, all of which are situated in the heart of London's Lon-don's fashionable quarts;. And besides there are extensive properties in Cheshire, Che-shire, Bershire and Flint, Scotland. The beautiful estate of Cliveden-on-the-Thames ,was also the property of the late Duke of Westminster before its purchase by Mr. William Waldorf As--tor for a fab-ulous sum. The young Duke of Westminster has not reached his majority, and will not be years old for some months to come. After his marriage he will return re-turn to Africa, but not to his former position as aide-de-camp to the British high commissioner. Sir Alfred Miller. He will be an officer in the imperial yeomanry, which is formed of duke3, oarls, barons, lords and England's sons of bluest blood. It Is- a very aristocratic aris-tocratic regiment, and will be supported support-ed by the Highland yeomanry, which is formed of old warriors who have seen many years of active service. The imperial yc-cmanry is known as the rough rider regiment of Great Britain, because of its similarity to the rough riders of the Spanish-American war. The duke will only remain, a week with his bride after the wedding, then he will bid farewell to her, for events in Africa are demanding the attantion of England's young blood, and It was nve.r a. Westminster who failed to answer an-swer the call of his country and his queen. London sr.-ic.ty listens to the story, then sighs and says: "The poor creature; crea-ture; and she is so young. Will he ever return to her?" |