“The next lover was a pastor, who was as mercenary as herself, for he threw her over for a lady with a large fortune. After this failure to establish herself, Suzanne became tired of seeking a husband in Switzerland and went to Paris as the companion of the rich and handsome Madame Vermoneux, the supposed mistress of Jacques Necker, the rich Swiss banker, who was established in the French capital. Once in Paris, it was not long before by her seductions Suzanne succeeded in supplanting Madame Vermoneux in the still young banker’s affections, with the result that she married him in 1764.
“Gibbon, whom she had last seen in 1763, returned to the side of his former love when she was at length safely married to another man. We find him writing in 1765, to his friend Lord Sheffield, formerly Mr. Holroyd, that he had spent ten delicious days in Paris about the end of June. ‘She was very fond of me, and the husband was particularly civil.’ He continues confidentially: ‘Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening to supper, go to bed and leave me alone with his wife—what an impertinent security!’
“It was in the month of April in the following year, 1766, that was born Madame Necker’s only child, Anne Louise Germaine, who was destined to become one of the most remarkable women of modern times. From the great literary talent displayed by this wonderfully precocious child from girlhood, it is difficult not to imagine but that in some, if merely spiritual, way the genius of her mother’s old lover had descended through that mother’s brain as a mantle upon herself. That she learnt to look upon Gibbon with admiration at an early age is sure. Michelet informs us that owing to the praises showered upon the historian by M. Necker, Germaine was anxious, as her mother had been before her, to become Gibbon’s wife. She was, however, destined to have another husband—or rather we should say two other husbands.”
iii
Recollections and Reflections by a Woman of No Importance has added greatly to the number of this author’s readers, gained in the first instance by her Memories Discreet and Indiscreet, which was followed by More Indiscretions.
Recollections and Reflections consists of random memories of lords and ladies, sportsmen, Kings, Queens, cooks, chauffeurs and Empresses, related with a great deal of philosophy and insight and no little wit.
There are stories of Gladstone’s lovemaking, of Empress Eugenie and the diamond the soldier swallowed, of Balfour’s hats, Henry Irving’s swelled head and the cosmetics of Disraeli. There are stories of etiquette at a hair-dressers’ ball side by side with comments on Kitchener’s waltzing.
Lady Angela Forbes was the daughter of the fourth Earl of Rosslyn and the youngest child of one of the largest and most prominent families in England. Kitchener, Lord Roberts, Disraeli, the Kaiser, Prince Edward—she has dined or sailed or hunted with them all on the most informal terms. She tells, with engaging frankness, in Memories and Base Details, of the gaieties, the mistakes and tragedies of herself and her friends.
It was Baron von Margutti who informed the Emperor Francis Joseph in 1914 that Serbia had rejected his ultimatum. The character of the Emperor is a moot question. The Emperor Francis Joseph and His Times, reminiscences by Baron von Margutti, is by a man who knew the Emperor intimately and who knew the men and women who surrounded him daily. Baron von Margutti met all the distinguished European figures, such as Edward VII, Emperor Wilhelm, Czar Nicholas and the Empress Eugenie who came to Austria to visit. He watched from a particularly favourable vantage point the deft moves of secret diplomacy which interlaced the various governments.
Lord Frederic Hamilton, born in 1856, the fourth son of the first Duke of Abercorn, was educated at Harrow, was formerly in the British Diplomatic Service and served successively as Secretary of the British Embassies in Berlin and Petrograd and the Legations at Lisbon and Buenos Aires. He has travelled much and, besides being in Parliament, was editor of the Pall Mall Magazine till 1900. The popularity of his books of reminiscences is explained by the fascinating way in which he tells a story or illuminates a character. Other books of memoirs have been more widely celebrated but I know of none which has made friends who were more enthusiastic. The Vanished Pomps of Yesterday, Days Before Yesterday and Here, There and Everywhere are constantly in demand.