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How the Most Beautiful Back on the
Stage. Which Was Turned Away for
Years from Her Husband. LadyDecies'
(Vivien Gould's) Brothen-in-Law. Will
Turn Back to Him and Aristocracy
Again—ls His Test Works Out
Kitty Gordon’s beautiful
back- -maybe it’s the most
beautiful back in the
world—will soon be hut an en
chanting memory to the theatre
going public. She is about to with
draw it from the public stage and —
if her most interesting experiment
aucceeds-—exhibit it henceforth
only in polite, even aristocratic,
•ociai circles.
It is, in fact, an aristocratic
back, alas! Before it had ever
been discovered by American play
goers a marriage ceremony had
made it the conjugal property of
the Honorable Henry Beresford,
younger brother to Vivien Gould's
Lord Denies-—as is duly set forth in
th* book of British Peers
That it ever gladdened the hearts
of play-goers was tvholly due to the
accident of a conjugal misunder
standing—which it seems that the
Honorable Beresford now regrets.
"The stage is a bore, anyway,"
says the Honorable Mrs. Beres
ford, yclept Kitty Gordon, having
discovered some regrets on her own
account.
So Cupid is once more to take the
pair on his shoulders and endeavor
to carry them safely along the un
stable slack-wire of matrimonial
life.
Will the experiment succeed?
Or will Cupid's foot slip again, and
restore to the stage that most beau
tiful of backs? Will the British aris
tocracy receive that beautiful back
back? Will Lord Decles and Lady
Vivien welcome it home to the an
cestral estates? Will it warm other
noble English hearts,/as it warmed
that organ in plebeian bosoms at
the theatre and in the music halls?
Who can say? Let the sequel de
termine.
Behind that beautiful back Is a
•’ory, not of bones and flesh and
■miscle, but of hearts. Can
strained or broken bonds be mend
ed? Can sundered hearts be re
joined? One rude, practical phil
osopher said they could not. He
•ven drew a parallel. He said,
"Broken china always shows the
•rack.”
Kitty Gordon flouts saws and
iaughs at philosophers. She be
lieves that severed hearts can re
unite and beat as fondly as before.
And that brings us to the story.
Kitty Gordon is trying matrimony
•gain, and with the same spouse.
! here gre trial marriages, trial
courtshipk, trial almost everything,
but this is the first couple on rec
ord to attempt a trial reconciliation.
My husband, the Hon. Henry
Beresford and myself were never di
vorced," she said to friends in New
tork before starting rm tour with
The Enchantress.” in which, it goes
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without saying, she plays and sings
the title role. "That is a mistake.
We talked of It and even started it,
but never secured one In our hearts
I don’t believe that either of us ever
wanted one. He has come over here
and we wilt stay for two or three
months. If we get along, as we are
pretty sure to do —we are older now
—we will remain husband and wife.
There will be no divorce.”
The Honorable Henry Beresford Is
therefore on probation*, as it were.
So, too. is bls radiantly beautiful
wife. Will he keep his temper?
Will she control hers? That is the
question in the minds of each. For
it was temper that strained the
’■■ends, and finally caused the separa
tion. of the interesting pair.
“It was about nothing in particu
lar,” said the Honorable Mrs Henry
Beresford, a bit tearfully, to her
friends.
•1 started with nothing, but quar
rels usually do,’’ said the Honorable
Henry, who is but one remove from
Lord Decies. "But she ouldn’t give
in.”
Nor did she. Instead she sailed
for America, and her husband heard
by cable of her success, and her
newly revealed back in the States.
At the latter news he swore.
How should he know that all this
was a part of the exactions of the
commercial theatre in the sordid
States, and had in it no element of
the personal, that indeed Miss
Gordon protested against the rev
elation of those lovely back lines
to the waist, but that she yielded
to rhe demands of art and the coax
ings of salary? He was a very
angry young man, was the Honor
able Henry Beresford, and began
action for divorce.’
But all men are not of views so
narrow as the Honorable Henry.
Os these was Count Maurice De
Vries, an Austrian, who admired
the chic and candor of Viennese
women, and who was not dismayed
by the glories of Miss Gordon’s
back, only dazzled and delighted.
The Count met Miss Gordon in
London. He followed her to ro
mantic Paris. The ill-tempered and
unreasonable Honorable Henry fol
lowed him. He even played the
dog in the manger to such an extent
that he challenged the Count to a
duel in the early morning in the
damp Bois.
"It was duecediy uncomfortable
at that hour,” Count Maurice said.
"Damp and draughty.”
Count De Vries onlj’ lost his cof
fee and got a few scratches that
soon healed, for he is young and
healthy. Undeterred by the duel
and the watchful jealousy of Hon
orable Henry Beresford, he accom
panied his "Enchantress" to this
country. Their marriage was only
deferred by the dilatoriness of
Miss Gordon’s spouse in securing
his divorce. Count De Vries re
turned to his diplomatic post in
London. The men were careful
not. to meet at their clubs.
Meanwhile the anger of Kitty Gor
don's husband slowly cooled. He
even brought himself to look at the
pictures of his wife taken in gowns
of extreme rear decolletage in the
American newspapers. Having
glanced, he lingered to admire. It
was always thus with Miss Gordon's
pictures and Miss Gordon’s self.
M< inwhll , too. Miss Gordon, in
New York, and especially on tour,
reflected upon the past. Thoughts
are vagrants. They would not cen
tre upon her husband's temper and
the bitter things he said while the
tempest of that temper was raging.
The thoughts travelled back to the
early years of their married life, to
the perfect days of courtship. And
presently, greatly t< her own sur
prise. Miss Gordon found herself
weeping.
While Miss Gordon was tn England
for her vacation last year her ab
sentee lord and master wrote asking
if he might call. She received him
conventionally an’ chillily, as she
might any casual caller. There were
several present, and she handed him
i cup of tea with impartial atten
tion. 'Hie o! .ers left first, and when
they bad gone the husband and wife
"talked things over." There was no
quarrel nor hint of a quarrel.
"We might try again and see If
we can make It a go,” he suggested
as ue prolonged hfs farewell.
"We are older now,” assented his
wife "We may have more patience.
Come along with me to America.
Yon have always wanted to go.”
"I can’t go now. Constance.” Her
name isn’t really Kitty except on the
stage. “But I will follow yon in a
fortnight.’’
“At least, if we cannot get along
we will be no worse off than we are
now,” said his wife.
•'Rlght-o,” responded bis near
iorasnip.
He came. Every night at the
stage door wherever "The Enchant
ress” is playing, appears a tall,
quiet mannered man with a soldier
ly air, who puts the star into a cab,
s'eps in after her and closes the
door.
"One of them fool Johnnies?”
ask the doorkeeper.
"This Johnnie Is a wise one.” re
plies the "props,” who travels with
the company. "Guess he’s perma
nent •’
So Kitty Gordon will leave the
si age after another season or two
She will go to the Beresford home
forty miles from Ascot. She and
the Honorable Henry and their lit
tie daughter, Vera, who is at school
in England, will live quietly after
the manner of gentry, except when
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The Honorable Mr*. Beresford, Sister-in-Law of Lady Decies—Known on the
they run up to London to see the peen quite sure what to do with an c._„
new plays and to enter Mayfair, if actress otage as , ______
the ex-actress ia bidden. The fam- But Miss Gordon will no longe. Kitfv
oue back will be for her family ne an actress. She will be th? Hou ty < -’ ordon - VERA BERET FORD
and for society, if It wishes it. Their Mrs Beresford, and some time, per- 1 -r-v <->»a i»y i i-rr-
cousin, Lady Decies, once Vivien haps. Lady Constance Decies That KIITYJ, UAUuH 1 LIL,
Gould, mav ca. the deciding vote. is, if, as her husband says, they "make
for the Beresford family has never it a go” this time.
