lies. Our
fair Creole and the fair New Yorker were, however, more than equal to
all and any such emergencies and occasions.

It was with their capable tongues, quite as much as with their
charming faces, that they scored their social triumphs in England, and
it was mainly through their beguiling conversational powers that they
both caught the attention of the present king and queen--at that time
Prince and Princess of Wales--and aroused royalty's prompt and lasting
admiration.

Until that time no American could boast the fact that she was the
friend of the queen, prince or princess, but the young duchess and
Lady Randolph Churchill changed all that. They were the first of their
nation to be asked to the Sandringham house parties, to be included in
the lists of guests invited to meet royal folk at dinners, etc., and
to inspire in the present king and queen the thoroughgoing liking they
now cherish for American things in general and the American woman in
particular.

A good deal of brown Thames water has flowed under London Bridge, it
is true, since these exponents of two entirely different types of
American womanhood came over to astonish even our _blase_ society, but
no two of their sex and nation have succeeded in making a more deep
and lasting impression upon London than these, or have done more to
insure the social success of their countrywomen who followed in their
footsteps.

Consuelo, the duchess, is a grandmother to-day, but she is almost as
prominent a figure in the gay world as she ever was; unlike Mrs.
George Cornwallis-West, she never went in, so to speak, for political
prestige. She has cared for social gayety pure and simple, preserved
much of her beauty, maintained her reputation as the most delightful
house-party guest in England, and is noted nowadays as being, as well,
the most skillful, tactful and serenely polite bridge-whist partner in
the United Kingdom.

When, a few months ago, a house-party for royalty was given at
Chatsworth by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, it was at the urgent
request of both the king and queen that the Dowager Duchess of
Manchester came over from Paris to spend a few days under the same
roof with their majesties, whose affection for this low-voiced,
sweet-tempered, witty American woman has never wavered. Every now and
then one hears anew in London drawing rooms of some amusing saying of
hers, for she is as gracious and graceful a conversationalist as of
yore, and