The Washington times., 1920-09-12

~
~ posed to be a peculiarly happy in
q = dividual, proud and disdanful, auto
cratic and the mistress, not only of all the
smaller fry that revolve within the orbit
of such noble parsonage, but mistress of
herself and all her impulses as well.
No one ever thinks duchess would per-
NIT herself to be denied anything at all
not even the heart of the man she might
fall in love with. But now, from Paris.
comes news that proves that when a
duchess falls In love she is confronted
with troubles and heartaches and pitfalls
which even the most romantic American
girl could never dream of as ever coming
to her.
The news from Paris is that Theodore,
Duchess de Chaulnes, daughter of the late
Theodore P. Shonts, the traction magnate
of New York and one of the builders Of the
Panafa Canal, has announced her engage
ment to the young Duke de Creusot, scion
of one of the most famous families of the
French nobility and one of the important
leaders among the royalist set which still
hopes for the eventual return to power of
d'Orleans pretender to the throne.
Theodora's marriage in New York, in
1908, to the Due de Chaulnes, was the
scene of one of the most exciting society
scrambles" ever staged in America, with
such as Mrs. George Gould, Mrs. Stuyve-
SAINT Fish and Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs
standing packed like sardines,' in the
halls and en- the stairways in the Shonts
home for hours just to catch glimpse OF
the ducal bride and have it konwn that
they were among those honored with we'd
ding invitations.
Six weeks later the bridegroom died
from a sudden attack of heart failure in
a Paris hotel. The young duchess was
Frustrated with grief. Her sister-in-law,
the prominent Duchess dUzes said at the
time: I'VE never knew how much an
American girl could love, and we never
suspected that little Theodore loved
Emanuel so deeply We shall take her
irto the family, and adopt her as one of us
And right there with that comforting OF
. y"eat honor and a great trust upon the
,.,nrican duchess. widowed at the height
80 'or honeymoon, the trouble that lies in
beg duchess-a beautiful widowed
duches; that is-began to pile up for her.
a-e bound up in traditions of the past,
memories of the golden days of the Louis
and the First and Second Empires, there
is an institution known as the "Conseil de
Famille" which is the French way of say
ing 1.-The family council" So powerful is
this family council among the nobility that
the French courts almost invariably sus-
tain its rulings If they are questioned.
Thus the heads of family really are the
rulers of the whole family and may at will
dictate what each individual member may
do with his or her money or time or heart.
There was posthumous child. 1t was
son. Sons are very important in the ducal
set of any European nation. And this lit
tie son of Theodore Shonts was very i'm
portant indeed, for he not only was de-
stined to become the Due de Chaulnes, as
his father was known. but also the Due de
Chevreuse, the Due de Montfort, the Due
de Picquigny, the Due d'Angeau and the
Prince de Gallitzin, and maybe the Duo de
Luynesa All these titles, except the last,
had come down to his father through inter
marriages between noble families asso-
ciated with Louis XIV. and XIV, and the
son OF course would inherit them. The
proudest of these titles was that Of de
Chaulnes, because the Due de Chaulnes
always was, since Charles the Seventh
down to the Republic, Grand Constable of
France and First Chamberlain OF the Kings
household.
The present Duke de Luynes, one Of the
leaders in French social life, a very
wealthy nobleman whose title dates back
to Charlemagne, is titular head of the de
Chaulnes family. Should his only son,
who is very sickly, die, the young son of
Theodore would become Due de Luynes
also, and would inherit the great castle
of Dampierre, now Theodora's French
home, and all the rich de Luynes estates.
When the family council headed by the
aristocratic Due de Luynes met, shortly
after the death of the Due de Chaulnes,
and decided, after serious conference, that
the young American duchess would be ac-
cepted as member of the de Luynes
family in her own right, she became really
more of a duchess than she would have
been II her husband had lived.
But. the family council warned her. as
the acknowledged and accepted Duchess
dc Chaulnes, she bore great responsibilities.
she was to become the mother Of Due de
Chaulnes and Picquigny and Montford
and de Chevreuse and d'Angeau. etc, etc,
and of all the things she must be most
.,r.f,,l about falling in love again was the