Enveloped in legend, the reputation of the newcomer for "eccentricity" had preceded her. She lived up to this reputation, too, for, when the spirit moved her (and it did so quite often), she would dance in the beer gardens "for fun"; she had her hair cut short, when other women were affecting chignons; and--wonder of wonders--she would "actually smoke cigarettes in public." Clearly, a trifle ahead of her period.
By the way, while she was in San Francisco, Lola is said to have renewed her acquaintance with the mysterious Jean François Montez, who, during the interval since they last met, had turned over a fresh leaf and was now married. But according to a chronicler: "The family felicity very soon succumbed to the lure of the lovely Lola." Without, too, any support for the assertion, a contributor of theatrical gossip dashed off an imaginative column, in which he declared her, among other things, to have been "the petted companion of Louis Napoleon"; and also "the idolised dancer of the swells and wits of the capitals of the Old World, with the near relatives of royalty and the beaux of Paris for her intimates."
This was going too far. Lola, much incensed, shook her dog-whip and threatened reprisals.
"What's the matter with you?" demanded the journalist, astonished at the outburst, "it's good publicity, isn't it?"
"Yes, but not the sort I want," was the response.
Still, whether she wanted it, or not, Lola was soon to have a good deal more "publicity." This was because she suddenly appeared with a husband on her arm.
Although the bridegroom, Patrick Purdy Hull, was a fellow-editor, the Daily Alta, of California, considered that the news value of the event was not worth more than a couple of lines: "On the 2nd inst. Lola Montez and P. P. Hull, Esq., of this city (and late of the San Francisco Whig) were married at the Mission Dolores."
Obviously regarding this as a somewhat meagre allowance, a New York journal furnished fuller details: Among the recent domestic happenings of the times in California, the marriage of the celebrated Lola Montez will attract most attention. This distinguished lady has again united herself in the bonds of wedlock, the happy young man being Patrick Purdy Hull, Esq., formerly of Ohio, and for the past four years employed in the newspaper business in San Francisco.
Mr. Hull was a fellow-passenger with the fascinating Countess on her trip to California; and the acquaintance then formed fast ripened into an attachment which terminated fatally to his bachelorhood. The nuptials were consummated [sic] at the Holy Church of the Mission Dolores in the presence of a highly respectable gathering of prominent citizens.