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tTHE iOREGOK SUNDAY JOURNAL; PORTLAND, SUNDAY MOBNING: OCTOBER 22, 1922,
p. -r
at a Topsy-Turvy for
fiis Gaiety Beauty Who
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Find the "Plain Young
American
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Wife
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Is a Prospective British
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Lord,. Himself j i
GUPID and Fate have Just played an
amazing trick on beautiful Gwen
Norman, English Gaiety girl, -who
baa com to the United States as the bride
p a 'plain American." , ?
1 -At least, she thought be was a "plain
ikinerican, and that was one of the rea
sons why she fell in lore with, him. Now;
fche has learned the meaning:' of the prov
terb about "Jumping out of the frying pan
Into the fire." (
And here is ' the story of how aha was
inade the "toy of the little laughing-od'ii
. It begins at the Gaiety Theatre, London,
where the fair Gwen danced and won her
fame as one of the select beauties of ,th
British capital. Tall, long and lithe of
limb, "with classic Patrician features and
the pale golden hair which the English
call "ash blond" and the French describe
; fts "cendre" she seemed to have frbeen
designed by nature to grace a baronial
castle or a ducal coronet rather than tho
dere stage of a metropolitan music hall.
"Gwen will make' a brilliant marriage,
her friends predicted, and, recalling the
many English stage beauties and show
. girls who had married into the titled aris
tocrac;, it is no wonder they imagined that
the day would come when beautiful Gwen
Would become "The Lady Gwendolyn."
And, sure enough, as the season pro
gressed and her beauty became the toast
of the'j-town, she had dangling on her string
a good half-dozen gay and titled admirers.
Chief among them was the handsome
young Lord St, Germans, famous through
out England for his lore of horses and hit
lavish entertainments at the London night
clubs. Another devoted amirer was the
fson of a titled manufactnrer of Scotch .
v whiskey. -
By these and other admirers Gwen was
courted and feted, i Presently she was re
ceiving the congratulations of her friends
upon the informal annonncement of her
engagement to Lord St. Germans,
The engagement was made the pretext
for more lavish parties, and Gwen Nor
man, as the fiancea of the gay young Noble
man, soon found her life, outside the6 hours
of her work on- the stage, one continual
round of parties that became wilder and
wilder. i
She says she found Lord St. Germans
always a gentleman and that she has noth
ing to reproach htm with except that he
1 Introduced her to a circle that to her
seemed one of the "fastest" in, the gay
London "night set." '
"St. Germans himself is all right
thought Gwen (she now tells), "but d
cidedly these friends and companions and
playmates i of his amuse themselves in a :
way that is not my ideal Of a happy life. I
wonder If I haven't .made a mistake in
promising to marry him ?f
Meanwhile, the rich son of the whiskey
manufacturer was " stai attentive. One
night she went to topper with Mm, and
after the supper, when he motored jir to
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Above, Lord St.
Germans,; and '
at Left, Lieut,
Frederick r
NorrU, Directly;
in Line to
Become Lord
Stirling, Though!
Now a "5 and
10" Clerk.
-is
Mrs. Frederick
fiorris, of New
York and Not at All Desirous of Changing
Her Name to Lady Stirling, of Stirling Castle.
the door of her apartment, he-Degged t
be allowed to "come -in just long enough
for a highball. As there was a maid in the
apartment, she invited him In, ami the
maid brought siphon and bottle (hisi own
brand). At this moment there was a vio
lent knocking on the door. It was her
fiance. Lord St. Germans, who had had a
highball or two himself, and who was angry
and jexcited. She was preparing to let
him in, as she felt she had done nothing
blameworthy, when the young, knight of
the whiskey bottle took matters into tis
own hands byi cUvtof, vUnder a huge Isola.
and hiding. There was iiotliing to do bat
, I X i Jiever
111
JC One of Her Gatety J:
XV If Gwen Norman, With V I
' Whom Lord St.
Gerx-aansFelilnLovew r t
had been lying there drinking one highball
after another while she had been talking
with Lord St. Germans. It required the as
sistance of her maid and his chauffeur to
get him out and into his motor and away.
Now Gwen Norman regretted her ac--quaintanceship
with both men, and par-.
ticulalrly her engagement, to one of them.
' Ultimately she .made" up her mind. ' "I
shall never marry a title," she decided.
" think I would be much happier with a
plain, ordinary mortal, who works
as I do for a living and finds, his
amusements in, simpler and more
wholesome things. Decidedly this
fast life Is not for me. No, I shall
marry a . lord. &o me en
gagement was broken. '
Shortly after this, Cupid anl
Pate laid the amazing trap in
which. Gwen was to be so.
strangely caught. "She met a
"plain young Zmerican," Fred
erick Norris, who had
been in the Royal Air
Force, son of .Freder
ick T. Norris, vice
president of the First
National Bank .of Bay
City, Michigan. -
They fell In love
am really happily
dissemble! and she. dissembled very well.
Opening the door to her fiance she let
him enter and pee for himself that
"no one was there." Then she toot
him into an adjoming parlor, re
proached him for his sus
picions, and presently
sent him away, contrite
and devoted. ! .
On going back to send
her other admirer hlome
she discovered that! he
was still under- tla4iofa,
but that.; in coanpanj' irith
tba bottle and siphon, he
1
at first sight! ."Now
in love," sal Gwen.
"and thank heaven i shall never marry a
title! I swear it! We'll be marrfe. Fred,
and I wUl.go to America, where we will
live a happy, tranquil, normal dife. x J I
They were married, came to America
and began in New York to live their
"happy, tranquil, normal life."1 jlf any
thing, it was a little too normal, or Papa
Norris objected to his sen marrying a girl
of (fche stage, no matter how beautiful, and
the! young husband had to take' any work
that came to hand which happened to be
clerking at a small salary in a! famous
five and ten cent store. r j -
Nevertheless, they were happy as turtle
doves In their little love-nest until- r
And here comes in the strange trick that
Fate played on Gwen Norman. Inquiring
orse day into the jfamily history of her hus
band, the "plain young American." Mrs.
Norris learned to her amazement that he
was directly related, by various) family
cdanections, to the noble Scotch .family of
Stirling, peers of the British Empire for
generations, and, what' was worse,. jhat he
was directly in line to succeed to the title
if other male scions died before him. ' In
short, that if a very possible series "of
events occurred her "plain American," Mr.
Frederick Norris, would become Lord
Stirling. ! ' . '
This would mean that she wbuid hsve
to go back to England and become "Lady
Gwendolyn' after alh She would Share to
move in the society from' which she had
fled In. short, would have to do the very
thing which she had sworn : she - would
sever do, under any circumstances. --
She didn't know whether to laugh' or
cry. She doesn't know yet what io think
of the strange trick Cupid and Fate have
played. r . : ' j '
She swore she would never marry a title.
She married a plain American to escape. a
title and now her husband ' may I become
a British lord. '. - j
"I love Freddie Norris,, she says, "but
who knows whether I would lot Lord
Stirlingr . -
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