any alliance to form, but love transcends societal standings. Their affair remained secret for many years except among a close circle of friends --an astonishing accomplishment when compared to today's in-your-face society.

One of those discreet companions was the sculptor, Charles Sykes.

Lord Montagu commissioned his friend Sykes to design a mascot for his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The artist created a figure of a woman in flowing robes with her finger to her lips, known as The Whisper. Sykes used as his model, Thorn... Montagu's pet name for Miss Thornton.

When Rolls-Royce decided to offer customers a mascot to top the radiator of all vehicles, Sykes was approached. He used The Whisper as the basis for what became the Spirit of Ecstasy--thus immortalizing the love affair between Montagu and Thorn.

Still, discretion was paramount. Even Lord Montagu's wife, Lady Cecil, was, according to Montagu's biographer as quoted in the Daily Mail, "resigned, with no feelings of bitterness... [I]f he had to take a mistress then it was as well he had chosen someone as sweet-natured as Eleanor Thornton--rather than someone who might cause a scandal."

Miss Thornton's untimely death in 1915 ended the affair. Traveling to India with Lord Montagu aboard the SS Persia when it was torpedoed by a German submarine, Thorn was swept away by a wall of water. Montagu was shattered.

Lord Montagu had fathered a child with Miss Thornton--a daughter named Joan, born in 1903. Joan was also a prudent woman. She attended her father's funeral, but was so quiet no one noticed she was there. The family only learned of her existence after Montagu's death.

Today, we read news headlines almost daily about some celebrity or politician who unabashedly parades around with a lover, a prostitute, even a porn star in public to the embarrassment of his (or sometimes her) spouse, and often their children.

I don't condone affairs, but nor do I condemn those who have them. What I find shameful is the absolute disregard for other people's feelings and simple standards of decency.

It is fitting that the ornament atop the hood of the classiest car in the world was fashioned from a story filled with class and decorum--certainly one of deep affection.

I salute the centenary of the Spirit of Ecstasy, as an automotive icon and as a symbol of a quiet love story. As Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, "Brief is life but love is long."

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