The Washington times., 1901-11-17
TITLED MoTHER-M-LAW.
The camtesse de TuiIeyrand-Peri.
cords Luck Selection.

cords Luck Selection.
An American woman who has for years
| made her home in Paris Is visiting a New
York friend. She knows her Paris and
| Parisians far better than most trans
! planted Americans. for family connec-
| tions opened the doors OF the exclusive
! Fauoours St. Gernafn to her, according
| to a writer in the New York Sun. aEl'iI
| The other day she was talking with
| some intimate friends of the latest Fran
| co-Ameriean wedding which was agitat-
| ing French society when she left Paris.
The Mortons We're always popular with
tfe old regime she said 1t isn't at all
surprising that the daughter should
marry into the very elect
1T isn't case of dot. either, though
Miss Morton has a good marriage por-
! ton Comte Bosom de Tale yrand-Peri-
| s9rd Will have money enough of bis
Half of his fathers fortune will go to
nm, and his mother, who adores him
and is very wealthy will leave him ali
she has. lie is handsome, too-handsome
in the best French way, not merely dap
per-and he Is very decent fellow, as
IN Nlch sweils go.
But. do you know, If he had been quite
hopeless, and | had been Miss Morton. |
would have been tempred TO marry him
just for the sake OF the mother-in-law
one would get with him.
Shes the finest thing in Parfs-the
finest thing in the way of an old gentle
woman l ever saw. II itsn't fair to call
her old. She will never be old
Years have absolutely nothing to do
with it. and, for ~that matter, she isn't
very, very old, even if one counts by
years. used that word old merely be-
cause the woman always seems to me to
belong TO the old days of the salon, and
of the women who ruled society regally.
The Duchesse de Valencay has ruled
French society for twenty-five or thirty
years. She has been the acknowledged
leader
She is a royalist born and bred. royal
ist to her finger tips. During the Empire
she refused to appear at court. She de-
clined even to meet the Empress.
She is tremendously Independent, to
the extent of defying all criticism, yet she
is generous and big hearted and her own
story is romance.
''She scorns the Republic as she scorned
the Empire. There is absolutely no COM
promise about her; but she is charming,
charming.
When she married the Prince de Sagan,
he was the Beau Brummel of Paris. and
travelling pace rapid even for Paris.
She was the daughter of Baron Seilltere,
exceedingly rich and absurdly young. ii'f
1T was all matter of dot, and as soon
as the wedding was over, the husband
took up his race to the dogs, with an
additional income to increase his speed.
THAT sort of thing happens every day
IN France. 1t doesn't occasion any re-
mark. But the princess had ideas 7of her
own, and she gave the faubourg a sur
Nine. de GalIifet was her Intimate
friend. She too. was young and good
looking and rich, and she, too, had been
married for her money and practically
abandoned.
The two young wives decided to make
q stand. They were the first women of
position IN France to separate from their
husbands demand their own money, and
live independent lives.
The princess was very rich. Nine. de
Gallifet had money, but not nearly as
much as her friend. The two lived to-
gether. Their position was accepted and
endorsed.
They entertained magnificently, went
everywhere together, didn't pose for an
instant as blghted beings. It was all
rather splendid, that stOrming OF French
prejudice and winning out triumphantly.
Three or four years ago the Prince de
Sagan came a cropper in that race of his.
He was siXty-hve and was riding as hard
and fast ever, when a stroke of paraly-
sis came and made him hopeless invalid,
quite helpless and with mental faculties
impaired.
THE moment the princess heard of the
calamity she flew to his side forgot all
her old injuries. took him to her home.
gave up her time and strength ana money
to him. She is doing It yet-and he adores
her.
His father died a few years ago. and
made him Due de Valency, but everyone
calls his wife the Princess, dc SdSan- SRc
is still good looking, perfectly gOwned,
good to the crippled husha r.sl, and devoted
to her son.
Now. isn't that stunning sort OF
No daughtcr-in-lAw could
live up to her, but they Say she Is de-
lighted with her sons American wife