Debutantes
Page 69
Inside the abbey it was standing room only, with everyone from royalty down to the man who worked the limelights at the Gaiety Theatre awaiting the bride. The bridegroom’s chief godparents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, naturally had première placement close to the old duke himself who had gallantly risen from his sickbed to see his son and heir married.
Nor was anyone of importance missing from the theatrical side for in her time with George Edwardes’ famous company May had come to epitomize what all those in the theatre dreamed of as a possibility for themselves, the birth of a star from the ranks of the chorus. So side by side among the congregation the theatre took its place with Society, impersonator alongside impersonated, famous actor beside famous politician, the invisible social barriers lowered for those few enchanted hours anyway. Thus Sir Henry Irving was to be found in the congregation next to Connie Ediss, and Ellen Terry alongside Teddy Payne, and some that were there still swear that when May finally appeared at the door and made her entrance up the aisle in a dress made by Worth with a twenty-foot-long train carried by four of the famous Eight a voice could be heard to call Bravo! as was customary on first sight of the stars and the sets on the opening night of a George Edwardes show.
Certainly when the couple turned to come down the aisle as husband and wife there were many who were hard put not to applaud, nor were they all on the theatrical side. For even those who were in the terms of the times ‘wedding weary’ said at the reception later the future Duchess of Wokingham had to be considered one of the loveliest brides of the century.
Yet of everyone who was present, including Captain and the Honourable Mrs Danby, perhaps the happiest of all were the three guests carefully placed on the aisle, but in terms of precedence seated well behind the rest of London Society. Mr and Mrs Herbert Forrester and Miss Louisa Forrester had told May that they had no wish to intrude, but they would hardly have been human if they had not felt that in some particular way they were directly responsible for this famous match and wished to be there to witness its outcome.
‘Well, by ’eck,’ Herbert said, as the rich and the famous trooped by him on their way out of the abbey, ‘I know I shouldn’t say so in church but I don’t know what else to say. So I’ll say it again. By ’eck.’
‘You say what you like, Herbert dear,’ Jane Forrester replied. ‘You go right ahead and say exactly what you like, because I tell you this. I never saw a lovelier sight in all my days.’
‘If only her mother had been here to see it,’ Herbert said, and the sudden memory of Ruby’s young face as he pulled her out of the canal came back to him and all but overwhelmed him. ‘I wonder what you made of it all, Louisa love,’ he said, eventually turning and looking down at their own poor daughter. ‘I tell you, after four long years I’d give anything to hear what you had to say.’
Louisa took a deep breath and slowly looked round at her father.
‘In that case I shall tell you, Father,’ Louisa said, speaking quite clearly, to the astonishment of both her parents. ‘I’d say that’s not half bad for the daughter of a floozy, that’s what I’d say.’
Herbert and Jane Forrester stared at their daughter, then they stared at each other, then back at their daughter again before suddenly they began to laugh. In fact they laughed so much that finally they had to sit back down in their places as slowly and majestically to the right and to the left of them the last of London Society left the church.
THE END
About the Author
Charlotte Bingham comes from a literary family – her father sold a story to H.G Wells when he was only seventeen – and Charlotte wrote her autobiography, Coronet among the Weeds, at the age of nineteen. Since then she has written comedy and drama series, films and plays for both England and America with her husband, the actor and playwright Terence Brady.
Also by Charlotte Bingham:
CORONET AMONG THE WEEDS
LUCINDA
CORONET AMONG THE GRASS
BELGRAVIA
COUNTRY LIFE
AT HOME
TO HEAR A NIGHTINGALE
THE BUSINESS
IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW
STARDUST
NANNY
CHANGE OF HEART
THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS
GRAND AFFAIR
LOVE SONG
THE KISSING GARDEN
THE LOVE KNOT
THE BLUE NOTE
THE SEASON
SUMMER TIME
Novels with Terence Brady:
VICTORIA
VICTORIA AND COMPANY
ROSE’S STORY
YES HONESTLY
Television Drama Series with Terence Brady:
TAKE THREE GIRLS
UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS
THOMAS AND SARAH
NANNY
FOREVER GREEN
Television Comedy Series with Terence Brady:
NO HONESTLY
YES HONESTLY
PIG IN THE MIDDLE
OH MADELINE! (USA)
FATHER MATTHEW’S DAUGHTER
Television Plays with Terence Brady:
MAKING THE PLAY
SUCH A SMALL WORD
ONE OF THE FAMILY
Films with Terencne Brady:
LOVE WITH A PERFECT STRANGER
MAGIC MOMENTS
Stage Plays with Terence Brady:
I WISH I WISH
THE SHELL SEEKERS
(Adaptation from the novel by Rosamunde Pilcher)
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DEBUTANTES
A BANTAM BOOK 9780553408904
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781446464120
Originally published in Great Britain by Doubleday, a pision of Transworld Publishers
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Copyright © Charlotte Bingham 1995
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