ROMANCE OF MILLIONAIRE’S ADOPTED DAUGHTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1772, 5 January 1918, Page 4

ROMANCE OF MILLIONAIRE’S ADOPTED DAUGHTER.

. Seaford, the little picturesque seaside town of Sussex, has been the scene of a wedding that throbs with romance, A few weeks ago to one of the ‘boardinghouses of the town came a pretty young visitor, who gave her name as Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt. She dressed magnificently, went.about in motor cars, and rode down the sea front in the early morning on horseback. The good people of Seaford speculated a hundred times a day about the identity of their visitor. Very, very quietly, and in the presence of a mere handful of witnesses, she was married the other morning to “a gentleman in khaki.” The bridegroom, Lance-Corporal Loekquell, of the Canadian army, is a Portuguese by birth, but has lived for years in Canada. His father is a professor at Oporto University, and the bridegroom is a linguist of no mean order. The bride is the adopted. daughter of Mr Frederick William Vanderbilt, the well-known American capitalist. She is 21, pretty, and speaks French like a Frenchwoman. Her father, Mr Benjamin Harry Langley, an accountant, was an old friend of Frederick Vanderbilt. Her mother is dead, and she was only seven when Mr Vanderbilt adopted her. “It is so romantic how I met my husband,” Mrs Loekquell said to a Pressman. “A few weeks ago I was riding on the seashore between Eastbourne and Seaford, when I became suddenly dizzy. I felt that I should fall from my horse if I did not dismount. I pulled up, sat down on tjhe shore, and left the horse standing by my side. There was no one near, and I was feeling really ill. Then the man who was destined to be my husband came along. He was kindness itself, and —well, you know the sequel. It was love at first sight. We have tried to keep our marriage quite a secret, you know,” she went on, “and I am astonished to find it has leaked out. My own people know' nothing so far. They will be so surprised.” Asked how' it was that she used the name of her foster father, Mrs Loekquell went to a drawer and produced'a legal document. It set forth the authorisation to adopt the name of Vanderbilt. “This I have done,” added the bride, “and now you know all. We are happy; very, very happy. It may seem romantic, but it Is a love marriage in the truest sense of the word.”