The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon – Duchess of Marlborough by Hugo Vickers

Author:Hugo Vickers [Vickers, Hugo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Biography, Europe, Great Britain, Historical, Non-Fiction, Rich & Famous, Royalty, Women
ISBN: 9781529390759
Google: sdOODwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07Q1D7PC3
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2020-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

I decided to stop seeing Gladys Deacon when I convinced myself that in human relationships she offered nothing but an offensive arbitrariness pursuing people in a flattering and ensnaring fashion only so as to be able to break off with them noisily when the fancy struck her.13

On 30 April Count Jean de Gaigneron, an intellectual and painter, invited Gladys to dine at the Ritz in a party consisting of Proust, Harold Nicolson, Marie Murat and Carlo Placci. Gladys sat between Proust and Nicolson, the latter recording the conversation between them and judging Gladys ‘very Attic’ and Proust ‘very Hebrew’. He ventured that a passion for detail was ‘a sign of the literary temperament’. Proust was hurt by this and cried out ‘Non pas!’ He then blew what Nicolson described as ‘a sort of adulatory kiss’ across the table in the direction of Gladys. The conversation turned to homosexuality – whether it was a matter of glands, nerves or habit. Proust was of the opinion that it was ‘a matter of delicacy’.14

No such matters were discussed with the Duke of Connaught when he returned to Paris on royal duties in May. He relished teas with Gladys at the Loidan or Colombiers, once so much so that he inadvertently detained the Earl of Derby, the British ambassador, whom he found waiting for him at the Ritz. As ever the duke was grateful to Gladys for her kindness and assured her: ‘Our friendship is so close and so delightful to me.’15 On 14 May he returned to London, and two days later Gladys retreated to her cottage in Nice. She did not see the duke again until the end of the year, but received a stream of letters from him, filled with interesting news. He informed Gladys that the Dowager Empress of Russia refused to believe that the Tsar and his family had been murdered, that Sir John French, ‘a vain little man & not quite a gentleman’, hated Asquith, and he mused over the fate of the Kaiser, by then in exile in Holland:

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