 Tree and most of his friends were conservatives, and Democrat Marietta found herself isolated.Recognising his wife's unhappiness, and for the first time in his life short of money due to the taxation of Foreign Trust income enacted by the 1945 Labour Government, Tree sold Ditchley and agreed to return to New York with Marietta, her daughter Frances FitzGerald, their daughter, and his butler Collins.Marietta immediately joined the Lexington Democratic Club, and two years later was elected the county chairwoman.