Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-23
AND FoRTEscUE.
The Story of the Giddy NObIeman Who
Loved an Actress.


The cable, which is everything by starts
and nothing long, mas hiccOughed the fol-
lowing paragraph and stopped there;
ssThe marriage engagement of Miss For.
tescue, late of the Savoy Theatre, and
Lord Garmoyle, familiarly and irreYer-
emily known as Lord and Lady Gum-
boil has been broken of.
This bit of romance needs piecing out,
and when it is pieced out 1t is not very
obvious that the match was at all lll-as-
sorted. except in the minds of the cranky
aste-worshipers. of England. Garmoyle
is a Lord by courtesy, his title being Wis
count. His father. Earl Cairns, began as
a poor Irish boy, and he has climbed up,
American fashion. His father kept lit
tie grocery store in Belfast. Inc
bOy was ambitious, and he
loved books and taught himself. He
saw that LAWYERS thrOYe and were hon.
ored, so he resolved to be barrlster
Through a checkered life he fought his
way over all obstacles, till he became
LAWYER of the inner court, Attorney Gen-
eral. Queens Counsel, Judge on the
bench. Earl Cairns, and finally Lord
High Chancellor of England and leader OF
the House of Lords. This position the
poor Irish boy, who has won the corOnet
of an Earl, has held through two or three
Conservative administrations, and to 1t he
will return when Gladstone dies and the
Liberals lay down the sceptre. Lord
Cairns is very orthodox; be has never en-
tered a theatre in his life and enjolns upon
his family the duty of following his eX-
ample.
Miss Fortescue is the daughter of a
great coal merchant, who lost all his
property suddenly five years ago, when
She was 10. Being pretty and blessed with
a very fine voice and taking way, she
came out in a small part IN Gilbert and
SulliYan's operas. She is smart, good
actress, a fair musician, as prudent as
she is pretty, and makes her own dresses
so that they look like Partisan. When
she was singing Patience in the opera
which satiriZes the House of Lords, young
GarmOyle came whOoping around, sent
her flowers and obtained an introduction.
II don't want anything to do with you,
my Lord" she SAID; ''you can just 90
among your own folks" He laughed,
temporized, sent more floral tributes, adj
mired her far and near. She repealed him.
"YOu don't want anything of me-" she
said, "and don't want anything Of yOu."
He persisted. He was only p and was
struck hard. He was (cOnstructively) at
the military school at Sandhurst, but he
lodged back to London as often AS pos
sible and Swallowed the steps of the pretty
singer of the Savoy. Finally the baf1ed
young wretch was brought to bay, and he
pleaded with her to be his wife. $50
awayw she said; ''yOu know your father
Will never permit it,
Chang the old dufferp, cried the irrev-
erent boy; 'he's got to permit it! Pm old
enough to have a mind Of my own. Be-
sides, didn't he marry mother, l should
like to know - And when evening came
he slyly gave the dOOrkeeper at the Savoy
two shillings and climbed in and stood
jOyOusly among the chrome Earls with
pasteboard crowns, waiting in the wings,
while his adOred and Ownest only one
tripped on the stage and chirped her little
ditty.
A good slice of London was talking
about the affair when / was there in Au-
gust. Miss FOrtescue was then en-
gagged to the young scion of the plebeian
leader of the Lords. She had left the
stage a month before. and was preparing
for her nuptials. An acquaintance of
mine who was her intimate friend said to
her: "'Will GarmOyle marry you? Win
Lord Cairns permit it?' Yes, she said,
it had been all arranged, and she was to
go in September and visit her future
father-in-law at his great estate in Scot
land.
1 met this lady Monday in this city.
"Well,' / said, ''you see that Cairns has
made an idiOtic old tyrant of himself,
after all. Now Miss FOrtescue will sue
for breach Of promise"
"Now she exclaimed, Indignantly; sit
would be too vulgar and indecent. If she
does it III never speak to her againW
And yet Yesterdays cable dispatch an
nOunces that the suit had been brought.
So there are two more souls who
Henceforth viii as strangers pass.
I'm glad she has brought the suit.
Such an old fool ought to pay for his des-
pOtic fancies, and such young fool for
his servile acqulescence.