LIFE OF PARIS BEAUTY

Evening Star, Issue 17964, 10 May 1922, Page 7

LIFE OF PARIS BEAUTY

SOCIAL SPLENDOR—AND TRAGEDY. A FORTUNE GONE. The last scene of oil makes more impression in the story than the olden gaiety and splendor. _ . . In the south-west quarter of Pans, m a netelizorhood corresponding to Bethnal Green runs a little commonplace street. Rue do I’A.bbe-Groult. It is a street ot grocers, greengrocers, and potty tradesmen. , ~, , On the ground floor of one of the houses is a dairy shop and a dye shop | in a room in an upper story lived a woman, still fairly young, and still possessed of beauty, who was one of tho most celebrated of the gay ladies who shine at Longchamps races. And now let us begin at the beginning. Germaine Gaillard was not always aristocratic, nor always plunged in misery. Her mother was the concierge of a respectable apartment-house in the fashionable quarter of Paris, and Germaine at school was both intelligent and docile. Her mode of life—opening the door and running messages for tho aristocratic tenants of the house—gave her enough acquaintance with them to make her familiar with their manner of speech, and to cause her to envy their fine clothes, their carviafres, and'the luxury of their houses.-_ After various unfortunate love affairs Germaine attracted the attention of a voung banker, as he called himself, named Gaillard. This young man was the masculine counterpart of Germaine. He was in reality only a bank clerk, badly paid, but ambitious, intelligent, and full of audacity. . . . . , Ho conceived various schemes ot getting rich quickly, and iu order to interest Germaine in these and to secure her able assistance be married her. As Madame Gaillard, fifteen years ago, she was already known for her style and “ chic. ihe papers called her Urn ‘'beautiful wife of the well-known financier.” Gaillard came to grief. He was tried and sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment in French Guiana. Hc wopt bitter tears on parting from bis wife, but she promised to go out to be nearer to him. .She proceeded to Brazil, and in tho more limited sphere of Rio de Janeiro she made a greater sensation than in Paris. Finally she contrived her husband’s This was romantic, but in real life incompatibilities of temper soon began to show themselves, and Madame Gaillard had educated herself into a world beyond that of the dishonest bank dork. Gaijlaid was rearrested, and sent hack to his felon’s labor in French Guiana, and on Ibis occasion Madame stayed in Paris. Hho was now in the full flight of her attraction, and she soon found someone to install her in a sumptuous apartment in Die Avenue Richer, in the neighborhood of tho Arc do Triomphe. Hero she spent money freely, and her dresses were described in the fashion columns of some of teh frivolous Parisian papers. Germaine had neither indination nor reason to be faithful to any of her protectors, and from time to time scenes of jealousy occurred between her admirers, and the cases were brought Into court. Then, some two or three years before tho war, she met the Russian Grand Duke Drobini, who was reported to bo immensely rich. Germaine captivated him at first, and then, renouncing some of her caprices, she tried every moans to ingratiate herself with her new lover aml to gain his confidence. This she succeeded iu doing, and the pair were seen everywhere, for the name of the Grand Dime gained entrance to houses that site had not Hitherto dreamt of approaching. Irregular unions of the sort are tolerated more freely iu Paris than in Loudon, tliongn they arc not .unknown there. Germaine became quieter but more distinguished in style, and she was accepted as a well-educated, charming woman of the world. A few months before Die war the Grand Duke died, and it was found that ho had left her a fortune of a million and a-half sterling, as Russian roubles then counted.

Qcrmai.no was then thirty-one, and she decided t-o retire from Paris and live the life of an aristocratic lady in a conn try house on which she had set her eyes. Then came the war 1 This made it difficult, if not impossible, to realise the legacy. As the will wa,s, however, in correct form and undisputed, Germaine was able to obtain largo credits. iSho kept up her, style for some time, but when the revolution took place she found that her immense fortune had dwindled to less than £2OO. Germaine had brought with her from Brazil a pretty little monkey, a. marmoset, and as it often sat on her shoulder when she went shopping it was well known in the neighborhood. She had also a magnificent black cat, of which she was veiy fond. She lived for a time by selling her old jewels, but she was reaching the end of these resources. She was now thirtyeight, and her beauty had ceased to fascinate. One day the concierge missed Madame and “ Ginetto,” the monkey, and she knocked at the door. There was no reply. Sho then went for the police commissioner, and together they forced an entrance. There on the bed, dressed in her last fineries, lay Germaine Gaillard, dead, already cold. By her side, as if her hand caressed it, the monkey seemed to sleep. On the rug was stretched the black cat, dead. On "the dressing table was a packet of veronal.