England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Social classes -- England -- Fiction
At the same time even as a countess her starry beams would not
necessarily be obscured. As Countess of Clarehaven she might have as
many pictures of herself in the illustrated papers as now; she could not
give her name to face-creams, but she might give it to girls' clubs: one
countess had even founded a religious sect, and another countess had ...
but when one examined the history of countesses there was as much
variety as in the history of actresses. And yet as a Vanity countess
would it not be most distinguished of all not to appear in the
illustrated papers, not to found sects and dress extravagantly at
Goodwood? Would it not be more distinguished to live quietly down in
Devonshire and make no more startling public appearances than by
sometimes opening a bazaar or judging a collection of vegetables? Would
it not be more distinguished to be the mother of young Lord Clare and
Lady Dorothy Clare, and Lady Cynthia Clare, and the Honorable Arthur
Clare.... Dorothy paused; she was thinking how improper it was that the
younger sons of an earl should be accorded no greater courtesy than
those of a viscount or a baron, when his daughters were entitled to as
much as the daughters of a duke or a marquess. And after all, why
shouldn't Tony be created a marquess? That was another career for a
countess she had omitted to consider--the political hostess, the
inspiration and amanuensis of her husband's speeches to the House of
Lords. Some infant now squalling in his perambulator would write his
reminiscences of a great lady's _salon_ in the early years of the
twentieth century, when the famous Dorothy Lonsdale stepped out of the
public eye, but kept her hold upon the public pulse as the wise and
beautiful Marchioness of Clarehaven. The second Marquess of Clarehaven,
she dreamed; and beneath this heading in a future Debrett she read
below, "Wife Living of the First Marquess. Dorothy (Marchioness of
Clarehaven)"; if Arthur Lonsdale married well, that marchioness might
not object to one of her younger daughters marrying his eldest son.
Dorothy started. How should she herself be recorded in Debrett?
"Dorothy, daughter of Gilbert Caffyn"? Even that would involve a mild
falsification of her birth certificate, and if her sister Dorothy
married that budding young solicitor from Norbiton they might take
action against her. She hurriedly looked up in Debrett and _Who's Who_
all the other actresses who had married into the peerage. In Debrett
their original names in their stark and brutal ugliness were immortally
inscribed; but in _Who's Who_ their stage names were usually added
between brackets. "The Earl of Clarehaven, _m._ 1905 Norah _d._ of G.
Caffyn (known on the stage as Dorothy Lonsdale)." Ugh! At least she
would not advertise the obvious horror of her own name so blatantly. She
would not be more conspicuous than "Norah (Dorothy) _d._ of G. Caffyn."
But how the girls at the theater would laugh! The girls at the theater?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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