The glittering prize had slipped and slithered from Wallis's grasp. Another woman, one whom she loathed, would now wear the precious: the crown she coveted. All that now remained was the abyss, a long headlong fall into social exile, irrelevance, and eternal damnation. Albert Pierrepoint, the official hangman, could not have executed a more swift and sudden drop.
In a move choreographed by the new Court, High Society turned its collective back on her. While the purge was not quite up to Stalin's standards, it was a very British affair, quick and quietly effective; nothing showy about these trials. The new king, George VI, ordered all those who swore allegiance to the Crown to stay away from the smart American set of Lady Cunard, Chips Channon, Laura Corrigan, Lady Mendl, and others, including Perry Brownlow, the man who accompanied Wallis on her exile to France. They suffered death by a thousand snubs, Brownlow ostentatiously ignored when he went to his exclusive members' club.
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