American Lady : The Life of Susan Mary Alsop (9781101601167) by Frances (INT) Caroline; Fitzgerald De Margerie

frivolity into art, and like Wodehouse, her books re-created a safe little universe that seemed untouched by the horrors of the contemporary world, a place where a lucky few cultivated wit as the highest form of civility. The milieu Mitford’s books describe was very closely modeled on that of her family and friends.
    Nancy Mitford had been in love with Colonel Gaston Palewski since she had met him in London in September 1942. She followed him to Paris, although she remained married to Peter Rodd. She lived in the same neighborhood as Gaston, but not in his house. “You know our cold respectability,” he had explained, strictly forbidding her from moving into his apartment on the rue Bonaparte. 23 Nancy’s love affair was not just with Gaston but with France in general and it would last until death. After her move to Paris, all her books were dedicated to her favorite country.
The Blessing
, published in 1951, celebrated France’s superiority over England. According to Nancy, life in France was delightful, dowagers charming, women smartly dressed, religion tolerant, the sun always shining, politics intelligent, and men irresistible skirt chasers. Gaston figured in
The Blessing
as the idealized and charming Frenchman Charles-Edouard de Valhubert, a Gaullist, former member of the Resistance, collector of art and women, yetvery fond of the Englishwoman he casually marries at the beginning of the novel. This satisfying fiction made up for the disappointments and sorrows of Mitford’s real life, where Palewski remained as elusive as he was dissipated.
    Susan Mary and Nancy knew each other fairly well. They met at the Coopers’, at the Pattens’, and at the lunches Nancy gave at her house on the rue Monsieur. Both shared a passion for the old, silent Paris captured by Atget, the still, private streets where foreigners rarely trod. Together, they had knocked on doors, opened gates, and, peering through windows, made out the sepia-toned light of inaccessible gardens. In the spring, they waited for the chestnut trees to bloom in ice-cream-colored shades of pink and white. After the dusty summer came the clear blue days of autumn, and later, the occasional bursts of winter light upon the gardens in the Tuileries. Paris had taken hold of their hearts.
    Nancy gave Susan Mary a brief appearance in
The Blessing
under the name of Mildred Jungfleisch, a young, pretty, and earnest American woman who talks only “about conferences and vetoes and what Joe Alsop had told her when she saw him in Washington.” 24 No doubt satisfied by this preliminary sketch, Nancy revived Mildred Jungfleisch in her next novel,
Don’t Tell Alfred
, a book inspired by the guerrilla war waged by Diana Cooper against the unfortunate Lady Harvey, whose husband had replaced Duff as British ambassador. In the book, the new ambassador’s wife is named Fanny, and her predecessor, Lady Leone. Described as the most beautiful woman in the world, Lady Leone secretly continues living in the embassy, assisted by her confidante, Mildred Jungfleisch, who sneaks in baskets offood and helps her entertain amused Parisians who desert the embassy’s drawing rooms to line up at her door.
    Mildred is described as belonging to a clan of Americans, “the Henry James type of expatriate, who live here because they can’t stick it at home.” 25 The new ambassador’s wife tries to find a way to corrupt Mildred and rid herself of Lady Leone. With this task in mind, she questions one of her husband’s aides about Mildred:
    “What does she like best in the world?”
    “English top policy makers.”
    “What, MPs and things?”
    “Ministers, bankers, the Archbishop, Master of the Belvoir, editor of
The Times
and so on. She likes to think she is seeing history on the boil.”
    “Well, that’s rather splendid. Surely these policy makers must be on our side? Why don’t they lure her to England—luncheon at Downing Street or a place for the big debate on Thursday?”
    “I see