Rebuke

The whispering gallery whispered in 1922 when Camilla Loyall Ashe Sewall, young society girl, married Senator Walter Evans Edge of New Jersey, a man twice her age. Today no one can say that it has not been a happy marriage, that Mrs. Edge has not added a youthful zest to Washington society, that she has not brightened the lives of unhappy Congressional wives at many an otherwise dull luncheon or dinner. This January she was undoubtedly surprised and flattered to hear that she had come within a few votes of being elected president of the Congressional Club.*

Last week there were more whispers when word went about that Mrs. Edge had administered a charming rebuke to Vice President Dawes. It happened at a recent dinner party given by the Edges. Mr. Dawes pulled out his underslung pipe during the salad course, asked Mrs. Edge: "You really wouldn't mind if I smoked my pipe now?"

Said Mrs. Edge with a wise smile: "Not even the Vice President of the United States can smoke his pipe at this dinner table. You smoke a cigaret. You cannot smoke your pipe in this room, until the dinner is over and everybody but yourself has a chance to escape."

Thereupon, Senator Edward I. Edwards of New Jersey, Democrat, famed for the appearance of his face in Lucky Strike advertisements, offered Mr. Dawes a cigaret. The Vice President accepted it, took two deep inhales, crumpled it on his plate. Later, in the drawing room, he resorted to his pipe.

*Mrs. Peter Goelet Gerry of Rhode Island was elected president (TIME, Feb. 7).