The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice De Janze and the Mysterious Death of Lord Erroll Read Online Free
Alice’s aunt Tattie. Juliabelle’s family had achieved their intended revenge: They had taken from William his most precious possession, his daughter.
For Alice, this must have been a period of extraordinary heartbreak and confusion. She was a thirteen-year-old, on the brink of puberty, accustomed to her father’s affection and indulgences. She would have been oblivious to the questionable morality of her relationship with William. She only knew she adored this man who had been the one constant in her life since the loss of her mother. Now Alice was sent to live with relatives whom she barely knew, in unfamiliar surroundings. Although William was far from an ideal parent, the effect of this severance on Alice was dramatic and damaging. She went from being the object of her father’s constant attention and care to being a complete exile from his presence and love. It's no wonder that as an adult Alice could react with astonishing violence when the men in her life threatened to leave her.
It was left to Aunt Tattie, Alice’s legal guardian, to look after her, to arrange for her to be educated, and to prepare her for adulthood. Aunt Tattie had no children of her own and no experience of child rearing. Although she was a kindly and well-meaning woman, she hoped to fashion her young charge into an obedient debutante, someone who would slip easily into Chicago’s elite circles. Alice had other ideas. She was entirely accustomed to a life lived on her own terms and did not adapt well to the limits imposed on her by her aunt’s vision. Doubtless exasperated, Aunt Tattie thought it best to send Alice away to boarding school. Alice was uprooted again, sent this time to Mount Vernon Seminary, a school for girls in Washington, D.C. A nonsectarian private school, it had been founded in 1875 by Elizabeth Somers. (The school has since been absorbed into George Washington University.) Alice stayed at Mount Vernon for the next four years. As a student, she excelled at English, and began to develop an interest in writing, publishing short stories and verses in the school’s magazine. One of her poems, which appeared in the Mount Vernon Seminary magazine in 1917—the year that the United States entered World War I—gives us an insight into her state of mind at this time.
The Storm
BY A LICE S ILVERTHORNE
A chill light shines in the sullen sky
With an angry sulphurous glow.
And a sharp wind sifts
Through the mountain rifts,
And whirls the leaves in eddying drifts,
To die on the earth below.
The grim-voiced winds are approaching fast,
Lean clouds slink out of the sky.
And a terror reigns
Amid the hurricanes
That whip the trees with the lash of rains
As the storm goes sweeping by.
So when you come, like the great red storm,
My cares, like the clouds, flee too.
And my heart leaps high,
With a happy cry,
Toward the turbulent blue of the wind-streaked sky,
Swept free of the clouds by you!
The poetry, although obviously amateur in nature, reveals a troubled sensibility and an intense longing in Alice. By the age of sixteen, she had suffered the death of her mother, separation from her father, and displacement on a number of occasions. It is hard to imagine that such a headstrong personality, who was used to being constantly appeased, would have adapted easily to the structured environment of a traditional girls boarding school. In her poem, when she longs for the clouds to be “swept free,” it is easy to interpret this as a cry for help to her father, whose leniency she must have sorely missed.
In fact, the turbulent weather Alice described in her poem had a direct correlation in her emotional life. Around the time of “The Storm,” she attempted suicide. Patsy Chilton—the former wife of Dr. Roger Bowles, who served as a part-time doctor to Alice in Kenya and who knew her well between 1938 and 1941—remembers being told by an American friend that Alice had tried to slash
For Alice, this must have been a period of extraordinary heartbreak and confusion. She was a thirteen-year-old, on the brink of puberty, accustomed to her father’s affection and indulgences. She would have been oblivious to the questionable morality of her relationship with William. She only knew she adored this man who had been the one constant in her life since the loss of her mother. Now Alice was sent to live with relatives whom she barely knew, in unfamiliar surroundings. Although William was far from an ideal parent, the effect of this severance on Alice was dramatic and damaging. She went from being the object of her father’s constant attention and care to being a complete exile from his presence and love. It's no wonder that as an adult Alice could react with astonishing violence when the men in her life threatened to leave her.
It was left to Aunt Tattie, Alice’s legal guardian, to look after her, to arrange for her to be educated, and to prepare her for adulthood. Aunt Tattie had no children of her own and no experience of child rearing. Although she was a kindly and well-meaning woman, she hoped to fashion her young charge into an obedient debutante, someone who would slip easily into Chicago’s elite circles. Alice had other ideas. She was entirely accustomed to a life lived on her own terms and did not adapt well to the limits imposed on her by her aunt’s vision. Doubtless exasperated, Aunt Tattie thought it best to send Alice away to boarding school. Alice was uprooted again, sent this time to Mount Vernon Seminary, a school for girls in Washington, D.C. A nonsectarian private school, it had been founded in 1875 by Elizabeth Somers. (The school has since been absorbed into George Washington University.) Alice stayed at Mount Vernon for the next four years. As a student, she excelled at English, and began to develop an interest in writing, publishing short stories and verses in the school’s magazine. One of her poems, which appeared in the Mount Vernon Seminary magazine in 1917—the year that the United States entered World War I—gives us an insight into her state of mind at this time.
The Storm
BY A LICE S ILVERTHORNE
A chill light shines in the sullen sky
With an angry sulphurous glow.
And a sharp wind sifts
Through the mountain rifts,
And whirls the leaves in eddying drifts,
To die on the earth below.
The grim-voiced winds are approaching fast,
Lean clouds slink out of the sky.
And a terror reigns
Amid the hurricanes
That whip the trees with the lash of rains
As the storm goes sweeping by.
So when you come, like the great red storm,
My cares, like the clouds, flee too.
And my heart leaps high,
With a happy cry,
Toward the turbulent blue of the wind-streaked sky,
Swept free of the clouds by you!
The poetry, although obviously amateur in nature, reveals a troubled sensibility and an intense longing in Alice. By the age of sixteen, she had suffered the death of her mother, separation from her father, and displacement on a number of occasions. It is hard to imagine that such a headstrong personality, who was used to being constantly appeased, would have adapted easily to the structured environment of a traditional girls boarding school. In her poem, when she longs for the clouds to be “swept free,” it is easy to interpret this as a cry for help to her father, whose leniency she must have sorely missed.
In fact, the turbulent weather Alice described in her poem had a direct correlation in her emotional life. Around the time of “The Storm,” she attempted suicide. Patsy Chilton—the former wife of Dr. Roger Bowles, who served as a part-time doctor to Alice in Kenya and who knew her well between 1938 and 1941—remembers being told by an American friend that Alice had tried to slash
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