The San Francisco call., 1906-03-25
That the
Countess Will
Forgive.
Home Still Maintained
in Elaborate
Style.
Love Of Children and Desire
for Social Supremacy May
Influence Her.
Special Cable to The Call.


PARIS. March 24.-The one topic of
conversation in society is the rupture
in the Castellane family Notwith-
standing that the Countess has filed a
formal application for divorce, the
Counts friends have not abandoned all
hope that q reconciliation may yet be
effected. The fact that the Countess
returned to their home in the Avenue
du Bois de Boulogne is said to have been
the first sign Of weakening on her part.
The hopeful ones also see a sign of
good omen in her having gone to Biar-
ritz rather than TO America. Mrs. John
G. Leishman, wife of the United States
Minister to ConstantinopIe, and her
daughter, the Countess Gontaut de BIZ
ron, are friends of the Countess. The
two young Countesses are connected by
marriage, for the Count de Biron is a
blood relation of Boni de Castellane.
The Leishmans Will certainly do all in
their power to bring about a reconcilia-
tion.
Another auspicious omen is seen in
the regularity with which the Castel-
lane home is still run, though the Count
has evacuated il. Everything is going
on as before the rupture. Liveried and
other servants. after they had finished
crying their eyes out for the woes of
the Countess Anna, now attend to their
respective duties. as If everything is
for the best in this best of worlds. The
two elder children, bright boys of ten
and eight. take their lessons as usual
from a preceptor, who is a well-known
clergyman
LOVE FOR HER CHILDREN.
1t is generally admitted, and she her
self does not deny the soft impeach-
ment, that the Countess really loved
her husband. Some of his friends pre-
dict that the fury of the storm of a
woman scorned will pass away and
that the old love will reassert itself.
Another reason which, It is argued.
must have weight with the Countess
is that she is ambitious socially. This
ambition can be more fully gratified as
the wife of Count Boni de Castellane
than as his ex-wife, or as his grass
widow. There are those who maintain
that the strongest argument of all. and
that which will induce eventually the
Countess to capitulate. is to be found
in the three beautiful boys. OF these
children the Countess is particularly
proud and for their sakes would be
willing to make many sacrifices.
Many accept as the very best indication
the fact that the Countess has already
given money to her husband since the
smash came Were It not for this he
would be very badly of indeed. For
Count Castellane's hereditary lack Of the
knowledge Of the value of money is as
strong today as ii was the night he paid
the bill for the whole house at Maxim's
or the day he ordered twenty-five pairs
OF trousers at once.
WOULD LOSE THE TITLE.
But the gloomy side, too, is not without
it's advocates. They assert that by rea-
son of the Countess temperament a
reconciliation is impossible. For she in
herits the strong will Of her father. She
brings to bear. upon her domestic affairs
a will power like unto that which he
father, Jay Gould, called into action when
crushing a competitor or breaking those
who might be obstacles before his Jug
gernaut car OF fortune. The Countess
never shows her hand until her mind is
fully made UP. During the time she was
deciding what course to take in the re-
cent rupture no one had the faintest idea
of what she was planning. Her decision
came like bolt from the blue. Slow and
deliberate decisions of this kind usually
stand.
The Countess can easily get divorce If
she persists in her purpose. She has am
pie evidence. She took good care Of that
before she sprang her surprise. The po-
lice officer whom she took with her to
track her husband has his notebook full
Of evidence.
II she obtains divorce she will not be
free to call herself the Countess de
Castellane. The French courts have set
tied that. They gave a very direct de-
cision about ii in the case of Mrs. Scott
Grant. The Duchess de Valencay when
living in Paris, calls herself Madame
Helen Morton. Madame Anna Gould does
not sound so well as Madame la Coun-
tesse de Castellane. In either event Count
Boni would not be free to marry again,
for he is Roman Catholic.