Franny Moyle (47 page)

And so, after yet another disappointment, Constance once again thought on her feet and came up with a new plan. With Bosie far too close in Genoa, and English schools proving resistant to taking the children, she decided the boys would be schooled in Germany.

This decision was informed by the Ranee, who was planning to rent a villa in Heidelberg in Germany. She had a son who needed to improve his German in preparation for the diplomatic service. With the Ranee considering a sojourn in this German city, Constance suddenly decided that she should send her sons to Heidelberg too. She ordered Baedeker's guide to the town and began to make inquiries about schools and to explore the costs of a modest set of rooms for herself and the children. The Pension Anglais would offer her a single and double room for 75 francs a week, she told Otho. If the boys boarded, she could take a single room for substantially less, but this would have to be balanced against the £60 a year that Heidelberg College charged for boarders.
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Constance was doing her sums.

The Holland family, as they were now, arrived in Heidelberg in April. As a renowned centre of learning and the home of the famous university, it was a city rich in schools. According to Vyvyan, his mother had managed to enrol the boys in a German school initially. The boys, who had so far had a very limited experience of school, were immediately troublesome. The schools practised corporal punishment. When Vyvyan was hit on the head with a ruler by one of his masters, Cyril apparently kicked the master on the shins. The boys were expelled from this first establishment almost instantly. Constance had scarcely more luck at a second school, where this time it was not the staff but the pupils who were attacked by the two young Holland boys.

Finally Constance settled Vyvyan and Cyril in the English school in the town, Neuenheim College. Most of the masters were British, and most of the boys were being educated in Germany because their own scandals and troubles had forced extractions from Britain. So in a sense Cyril and Vyvyan were in good company, and gradually they settled in.

Constance's life in Heidelberg became very simple indeed. Living in her small
pension
, reading became her greatest pleasure, along with small domestic chores. She began to teach herself German, of course, and she set herself the task of making cushions for Otho and Mary much of the time. She bought a photograph album and began to mount all her Kodak snaps.

She had very little in the way of society in Heidelberg. She was utterly astounded and delighted to hear that her friends Sir Hugh and Lady Low were passing through the city that summer and intended to see her. This was noted as a rare treat. Otherwise it was the Ranee who was Constance's most regular and loyal visitor. She would read to Constance from her diary about the life she used to lead in Sarawak.

Constance had joined the local English church and committed herself to being responsible for the flowers throughout July. But above and beyond small excursions to church and to town, she was essentially becoming housebound again. Signor Bossi's operation had failed.

‘I'm afraid I've no news because nothing happens,' Constance wrote to Otho in mid-July. ‘The Castle is always here and always looks beautiful and I have not yet been over it, because this entails a long walk and that I am not up to.'
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As an expatriate, Constance found that her life was becoming defined by the post. Her letters are full of instructions and information about things being boxed up and sent on, or having been safely received. Customs transactions, the cost of postage and the irritation of weight tariffs become part of her daily language. Many of her letters are concerned with cheques from her bank in England that need signing. It's small wonder that the boys became keen stamp collectors
during this period. This in itself accounts for much of the correspondence between Constance and her friends and family, as she requests particular stamps for the boys.

Of course, much of her correspondence also concerned Oscar. After her arrival in Heidelberg, Constance's relations with Oscar's friends took a distinct change for the worse. As far as she was concerned, Oscar had agreed to allow her solicitor, Mr Hargrove, to buy the life interest in their marriage settlement. But the self-appointed group of friends who were taking care of Oscar's interests, specifically Robbie Ross and More Adey, were still attempting to block Constance's bid for the life interest and had lodged a competing offer for it with the Receiver. Constance was outraged. It felt like another betrayal. Robbie Ross wrote to her in June to explain the reasoning behind the move, claiming that rumours had circulated that Queensberry himself was planning to acquire the interest and that this had to be prevented.

Whatever the motivations of Oscar's friends, Constance was appalled by their actions, and now she threatened to withdraw her offer to support Oscar to the tune of £150 a year on his release. The business matters that were currently proposed were utterly incomprehensible to her, she told Robbie. She was, after all, a woman now ‘obliged to live abroad'. She reminded him that ‘the boys will be forced to make their own way in life heavily handicapped by their father's madness for I can consider it nothing else'.
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After Robbie, More Adey decided he must write to Constance. He was petitioning the Home Secretary for an early release for Oscar and was desperately keen that Constance's signature should be part of the petition. Hers was perhaps the most persuasive voice Oscar might have at his disposal. But after her departure from Nervi, and after the bid for the life interest by Oscar's camp, Constance's advisers had closed ranks around her. Her new address was not disclosed by Hargrove or Constance's family. More Adey was therefore forced to reach Constance through mutual friends. In doing so, further parties became drawn into Constance and Oscar's affairs.

At one time Margaret Brooke had lived in Wimbledon, where she had made the acquaintance of Adela Schuster – ‘The Lady of Wimbledon', as she was referred to by Oscar. The socialite and literary enthusiast Adela was one of Oscar's supporters and was in regular contact with More Adey. Schuster now informed Adey that her great friend the Ranee was in close touch with Constance.

‘I have heard from my friend at Heidelberg,' Adela Schuster wrote to Adey on 23 June 1896, ‘a very kind letter evidently ready to do all she can – but she writes guardedly – she does not definitely say that she has or has not appealed to Mrs Wilde, but she advises me to write to her myself detailing exactly what Mrs Wilde should do.'
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The Ranee was clearly not being quite straight with Adela, for what is revealed next implies a very considered response which Constance must have almost dictated to the Ranee regarding Adey's request for Constance's signature on his petition.

She then proceeds to tell me that she is quite sure Mrs W will do anything she can to affect her husband's release provided she is assured of one or two points: Mrs W wishes first to obtain some certainty of promise from Oscar … that O will not attempt to interfere with the boys; and secondly that she is to be allowed to have her own money to bring them up as she thinks best. Assured of these things (she says) she would ‘tear herself to little bits' to get O's release.

Although Oscar had himself suggested that Constance must take charge of the boys, in light of the recent moves by his friends Constance clearly felt the need to restate this position. She was aware that what Oscar wanted and what those acting on his behalf were initiating were not necessarily the same thing. While at Nervi, Constance had even become nervous that some friends of Oscar might actually attempt to remove the boys from her. And she had become rather paranoid about their safety.
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It seems that the request for Constance to ‘have her own money' represents a desire on Constance's behalf to have complete financial freedom from her husband, such as would be accorded her by the courts were she to divorce him. Constance was still seeking to avoid
a formal divorce, the attendant proceedings, costs and publicity, but she wanted nevertheless the kind of monetary separation that a divorce would provide. And so, as part of this desire, the thorny issue of the life interest was raised again.

Adela continued: ‘Can you get at the friends of O's who are bidding for the life interest, and will you get their consent and empower me to say that they will not attempt to bid against her if she will appeal for Oscar's release?'

More Adey did not comply with Adela's request. Instead he wrote a letter to Constance explaining the nature of the bid for the life interest. This letter was sent to Adela, who in turn sent it to the Ranee for Constance's attention. In the letter Adey revealed that, for those on Oscar's side of the fence, there were mounting suspicions that those advising Constance were hostile to Oscar. In effect, Adey was suggesting he did not entirely trust Constance's word and wanted more assurances.

‘I am instructed by admirers of Mr Oscar Wilde to buy the Life interest under your marriage settlement for his benefit,' he explained to Constance.

My clients are persons who have never had the pleasure of his acquaintance nor of yours. They are actuated by admiration for his talents and profound pity for his lamentable circumstances … They understand that you wish to purchase the life interest yourself and they are anxious to meet your wishes to the best of their power. It was their original intention to hand over to you upon what ever terms you pleased, one half for settlement upon your sons. The other half they proposed to settle upon Mr Wilde … As an alternative they would still be willing to withdraw altogether if you would secure to Mr Wilde in some other way the enjoyment of an annuity in the event of your predeceasing him … Mr Oscar Wilde has had no voice with my clients and indeed as far as I know imagines that their efforts have ceased.
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Constance replied, but her letter does not exist. Adela's comments on it do, however, and from them one can piece together that Constance was not interested in bargaining with people she did not
know. Her conditions were that those attempting to buy the life interest must back off. She would not enter into promises about other annuities or be bargained with.

Constance had always been clear-headed when it came to business. As a young woman she had been through the details of financial settlements between her grandfather and mother; she had worked with lawyers to protect her brother's assets from his creditors; and now she was going to fight as hard as she could for her own. What is more, she had done her duty by Oscar. She had bailed out his debts more than once, and helped his mother financially. Otho had even loaned Oscar £500, of which some outstanding amount was still due. Her sense of indignation was strong in the matter of the life interest. And she had nothing really to lose. For what Oscar's side had not worked out was that, if she divorced Oscar, the life interest would be voided anyway. The stupidity of their position only served to inflame her further.

At first More Adey actually doubted that such a hard-nosed letter could be genuine. Bizarrely, he asked Adela Schuster if she thought the letter was some kind of forgery. Adey perhaps knew only a version of Constance informed by her somewhat shy and quiet manner. He was not, perhaps, familiar with the fiery, determined and highly intelligent version of Constance that Otho, Oscar and her close female friends, such as Georgina Mount-Temple, would have recognized. Adela, however, considered the letter genuine. What is more, she was in perfect sympathy with Constance and told More Adey as much.

‘The opposition of O's friends sets her against her husband and will probably interfere with her being kind to him when he comes out,' Adela warned Adey in August 1896.

In every way – financially and socially he is very dependent on her good will … Whatever O's friends may do or say she will certainly attribute their action in this matter to him, the more so as she knows that they have seen him several times, & she will soon naturally believe that they would not act in defiance of his wishes. All this is irritating her against him. This in itself seems to me cause enough to
drop all opposition to her, and then will you consider what is the advantage you gain for O – set against all this possible loss?
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Adey failed properly to heed what in fact was a very sound assessment of the situation. He wrote to Oscar and muddied the water further. This time, although he suggested that Oscar should perhaps accede to some of Constance's wishes, Adey warned Oscar against signing any legal documents that would in any way diminish his paternal rights over his children. He suggested that Constance's advisers were in fact now declared enemies of Oscar.

In the meantime, in July, Oscar petitioned the Home Secretary himself for an early release. He argued that his crimes were in fact ‘forms of sexual madness' and that he had been suffering from ‘the most horrible form of erotomania which made him forget his wife and children'.
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He also complained that his health was deteriorating, he was becoming deaf and his eyesight was concerning him. His petition failed to deliver the early release he had sought, but the authorities did grant him permission for more writing and reading material in his cell.

In September, Oscar wrote to Adey. He had now obviously considered Adey's suggestions that Constance's family and advisers were hostile to him and suggested that, when it came to the guardianship of his children, someone from Constance's family should be resisted. He suggested Arthur Clifton, but Clifton himself declined this suggestion.

It is unclear whether Oscar's views regarding a suitable guardian were made known to Constance. If so, they would only have been another among several aggravations that had now placed her side and Oscar's in conflict. It is little surprise that, by October, Constance had had enough. She instructed Hargrove to write to Oscar directly and make the simple point: do as she required or she would divorce him. The divorce courts would annul any claim he had on her life interest and under current circumstances would award her the guardianship of the children.