San Antonio Sunday Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 69, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 28, 1926 Page: 74 of 92
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By Vera Countess Cathcart L
CHAPTER 11. __„ I
(Continued from Lost Sunday) TelltaleSna P«bo* I
<C«-UM b American Weakly lot Great Brittle BlihU Bettered Photograph Which Wai I
T HAVE told of the .ccident.l me«ti» e with Urd I
I Craven who was a fellow passenger with me on Eye EngH h p icter ial I
* the ocean liner Llanstephen as we journeyed from Paper. It Showed Lord I
Capo Town South Africa to England and I have Craven Sitting on a Bench |
sketched the story of our growing friendship and With Mrs. Jean Nash I
Hi » R *« ht “d I
sympathy. Lady Cathcart on His Left. I
Young Craven estranged from his wife and un- ' E
happy; I myself the unhappy wife of a cold austere »
man thirty-four years older than I—and to bring
things to a climax Mrs. Jean Nash invited Lord
Craven and myself for a week-end party at her villa
in gay Deauville.
Just two days before I made my reckless trip to
Deauville with Lord Craven I attended a great court
held by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace.
At a court peeresses and society women pass before
the sovereigns and make a deep bow known as a
curtsey.’
A court is the most magnificent affair that the
official and social life of England is capable of cre-
ating. To a dazzled observer it means miles of gold
lace pearls diamonds ostrich feathers red carpet
glittering swords and helmets.
The peeresses wear their full dress trains the
length regulated according to their rank with feath-
ers in their hair. Among my jewels I wore the his-
toric 50-karat diamond given by the Czar Alexander
of Russia to Lady Cathcart wife of the British Envoy
to Russia during the Napoleonic campaigns. Lord
LU nubdia uurillg UIC vompaiftiio. a^va u
Cathcart is celebrated in history as having been one
of the favorite advisers of the Czar and as having
helped him to check the great Napoleon. This dia-
mond had been one of the famous collection belong-
ing to the terrible Empress Catherine the Great of
Russia.
The majority of women presented at a court pass
out as quickly as possible after bowing to the King
Queen. Only those having friends among the
princesses or high court officials are allowed to stay
behind in a reserved space and watch the rest of the
spectacle. The Hon. Hairy Stonor one of the King’s
favorite gentlemen-in-waiting and a brother of Lord
Camoys who married Miss Mildred Sherman of
New York was a good friend of mine. Through his
courtesy I had an opportunity to view the great spec-
tacle from an excellent position.
On my return home early that morning I found
Lord Cathcart waiting for me. This was a most
unusual attention.
“Really Vera” he said “you look quite well.”
I will not pretend that I had not given my hus-
band. Lord Cathcart some cause for dissatisfaction.
My excursions with Lord Craven my evenings spent
dancing with him had at last reached the ears of my
elderly recluse. I should explain that married
women in the best London society enjoy a surprising
amount of freedom since the war. It is quite usual
for married women to pay visits to country house
parties with men not their husbands.
In the highest English society it is considered
quite unusual to spend one’s holidays entirely
with one’s wife or one’s husband. But my husband
Lord Cathcart was a perfect early Victorian noble-
man. He had simply no idea of the modem freedom
of woman.
My domestic miseries at this time were increased
by the humiliating action of Lord Cathcart in refus-
ing to pay my Parisian dressmakers’ bills on the
ground that I had exceeded the dress allowance he
made me. Many people will recall that distressing
speech of Judge McCardie in which he upheld my
husband and said that I was “an extravagant woman
who made dress the chief end of her life.”
As a matter of fact my bills although large
were well within the large means of my husband
and were not half as large as those of many women
including Americans living in the smart set of Lon-
don. I shall have something more to say on this
subject of extravagance in dress which will interest
Mrs. Jean Nash in a Rather Unusual Fancy
Dress Costume by Patou in Which
Sha Idled Around Her Villa.
t K'iC’CL f.
The Famous Gambling Casino at Deauville Where Lady Cathcart Won $35000 in a Few Minutes.
my woman readers. And now came my trip with
Craven to visit gay Mrs. Jean Nash at Deauville. I
staited from Lord Cathcait’s house in a motor car
bearing his arms assisted into it by his liveried ser-
vants. I have already referred to my trip across the
Channel and the fatal role of Craven’s artificial leg.
I believe indeed that it will not be the Craven
black pearls that will live in history as “the curse
of the Cravens” but the Craven artificial leg. I
heard of it again and again in later years. Once I
heard he left it behind him in a room in a friend’s
house where it certainly ought not to have been.
This friend remarked sternly:
( “George. I don’t mind your wsing my room but
I must ask you not to leave an important part of
your anatomy behind.”
Our stay at Deauville was a lively and amusing
experience. It was an intense relief to me after the
atmosphere of repression and austerity I had to en-
dure in my own home.
Heavens and earth! What a delirium of extrav-
agant humanity is Deauville! English dukes Gaiety
girls Indian princes and maharajahs Parisian ac-
tresses and cocottes international adventuresses
professional gamblers American millionaires—all
the top layer of cosmopolitan abandon.
Among the Deauville throng was a strange Eng-
lishman named Sir Edwin John who made a great
fortune in India. One evening at a gambling
table a pretty American girl whom he didn’t know
stroked his head and he kept handing over 1000
franc notes automatically as long as she kept on
touching him.
Mrs. Nash had a lovely little villa—the Villa
Caprice—decorated in gray and mauve silks and
soft neutral tints. Mis. Nash’s bed was a dream of
luxury and beauty—of gray satinwood with silk
hangings.
Mrs. Nash has already enriched literature by a
description of our visit to her. While I feel no ani-
mosity toward her I must say that she was more
than a trifle inaccurate. She has said that Lord
Craven and I used up all the choice wines and eat-
ables in her establishment white she dined out with
several noble and millionaire admirers.
The truth is that we never ate in her house but
she usually ate with us at the Hotel Normandie the
most expensive and fashionable place in Deauville.
Not a single meal did I take in her house. Ido not
eat breakfast anyhow and for lunch and dinner
we went to the Normandie. Mrs. Nash was usually
with us when there was no wealthy friend waiting
to entertain her. We enjoyed her society much for
she is quite amusing but poor Lord Craven a bank-
rupt was deeply pained at the checks he had to pay.
I can well believe her statement that Lord Craven
dried up all the drinkables in the house. I was al-
ways trying to keep Lord Craven away from drink
which was deadly to him in his crippled condition
and his own wife and mother afterward thanked me
for doing so. To deceive me Lord Craven would
persuade his friends to leave surreptitious bottles
up the chimney in the curtains and in other con-
venient hiding places.
Lord Craven by the way said he welcomed this
trip to Deauville as a means of dispelling the gloom
caused by his father’s death. The old Earl had left
his son nothing but the heavily mortgaged entailed
estates—not even a watch or a pair of cuff links.
Hence the restaurant bills piled on him by dear Mrs.
Nash tended to bring back the gloom that Deauville
might have dispelled.
Just then a lucky event happened that made us
all happy for a time. I had tried the various games
of chance at the Casino with very poor results. This
particular evening 1 had exactly one Bank of Eng-
land five-pound note—s2s —in my pocket. 1 sat
down and started to play roulette. I remarked to.
Lord Craven:
“When I’ve lost that I’ll get up and will go for
a walk on the front and get a little sea air."
I bet $lO and back came $2O. That turned
quickly into $4O then to $BO then to $l6O then to
1320. Something magical happened. 1 couldn’t lose.
Soon 1 broke the bank. They sent for some more
money. I went on playing and winning. It was just
like one of those dreams when you pick up all the
gold you want.
At last I had $35000. Then I lost $5OO. At that
moment it occurred to me* that 1 had as much money
as I could carry away and so I stopped and went off
to a jolly little supper in the Casino with Lord. Cra-
ven and some friends.
It was an odd little circumstance that Lord Cra-
ven would never gamble. He believed in the old
superstition “lucky at cards unlucky in love” and
as he had many interests in the latter direction he
was afraid to touch a card.
LadyCatA
The Countess Reveals I
Truth About Her Rol
*■ . t
Craven Presents His d
course was always a glutton for female sympathl
At the end of our happy Deauville visit LoH
Craven went on to meet his mother Cornelia Dofl
ager Countess of Craven with the intention of goiifl
on with her for a visit to the Italian lakes. Ist art (I
on the way to Paris with him to meet his mother fl
in all my actions with him I never practiced any col
cealment or hypocrisy. I
On my way from Deauville to Paris I received til
first warning of the storm that awaited me. It wJ
a telegram from my French maid who was to jol
me later telling me that I was being watched ll
Lord Cathcart’s lawyers. I
It seems that it was really a snapshot in a Londfl
society weekly of Mrs. Nash Lord Craven and ml
self at Deauville that aroused Cathcart’s suspicion!
Burning with indignation I cancelled my stay fl
Paris and hurried back to London. I wired for nfl
lawyer Lord Terrington one of the best knov!
members of the “solicitors” branch of the legal prfl
fession in England to meet me at Victoria Statiol
1 jumped into a taxicab with him and we drove t!
gether to the Cathcart town house in Pont strefl
Belgravia. H
I put my key in the lock and turned it but I
would only open a few inches for the door was he!
by a chain! I was locked out of my home awl
from my own children. H
Then the face of our old Italian butler appear!
in the opening of the door. The tears were runnhl
down his cheeks as he said: fl
“My lady I am very sorry but I have His Ix>r!
ship’s orders not to admit you.” I
My lawyer advised me to do no more for tfl
present but to go quietly to a hotel where 1 coufl
consider my future actions. I then went to tfl
Hotel Ritz. ^fl
It was there that the divorce papers were servfl
on me. They named Lord Craven as co-respondeifl
For all Lord Cathcart’s wealth his historic famfl
jewels the great country estate at Thornton-le-Strcfl
in Yorkshire the town house in Belgravia my pofl
tion in society I cared little. What terrified me wl
the thought that I. might be separated from ifl
youngest boy who was Lord Cathcart’s heir afl
also left unable to educate my two older children afl
bring them up as I wished to. H
At this time I was receiving daily letters frefl
Lord Craven who was still at the Italian lakes wfl
his mother. He told me how greatly he loved w
and Details of 1
I HAVE been called a clever adventure!
cused of breaking up the home of the"!
But let us see what the facts are. I
I was the respected wife of one of tM
aristocratic peers of England. Lord Catt!
Into my life came the Earl of Cravl
nitely less social standing than my ownl
was! I listened to his tempestuous exprl
and begging appeals to marry him— and!
sincerity. I
I left a kind and honorable husband!
dollars a year to run away with a pennl
had the highest position at the English cl
enter a London club because he had nol
everything because of his protestations ofl
me. Indeed his wife had put her arms el
hope that I would be happy with her 11
him his freedom by the divorce she had I
I had arranged at the suggestion ofl
into the hands of his trustees so that he fl
condition made possible. After makingfl
London I had embarked on the ocean yfl
make my life over again with him. I
On my arrival in South Africa 1 toul
to return to the wife whom he had decfl
he met me whom he had said he hated fl
pudiated in writing declaring that whifl
he would never consent to go back to hel
And here let me say that young Crafl
rated after endless quarrels and Lady cl
ings before I ever met Lord Craven. ■
This I think is scarcely the story ofl
patience to hear my own narrative and tfl
which deceived me. ■
The rest of my stay at Deauvill
was all happiness and gold and sufl
shine. There was no more wonfl
about paying Jean Nash’s meal tiefl
ets. I forgot that I had outragefl
the proprieties and felt happy fl
the first time in months. ■
I must emphasize the fact thfl
Mrs. Nash had an unimpeachabfl
position at this time as the wife ofl
British army officer the ex-wife fl
a Canadian Cabinet Minister's sefl
and the sister-in-law of Princefl
Rodzianko. She won our con!
dence by expressing the warmefl
sympathy for Lord Craven over hl
wife’s treatment of him and hl
other troubles. Lord Craven I
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San Antonio Sunday Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 69, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 28, 1926, newspaper, March 28, 1926; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1631548/m1/74/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .