Excerpt from Famous Morganatic Marriages She was certainly surpassingly beautiful, pos sessing a lissome figure, dark, flashing, mis chievous eyes, cherry lips, and a complexion that looked like a permanent blush. Before the ball was over she had a score of men at her feet, and within a few hours was a recognised queen of beauty in a City of beautiful women. The next day half a dozen admirers called at her. Father's house, and she was very gracious to them until a Grand Duke put in an appear ance. He was a silly young man, with a weakness for making a fool of himself, and Count Czapski, afraid lest he should Offend the czar, implored her not to encourage the prince and to confine her friendships to those in her own station in life. Sonya - this was a pet name her father had given her - protested with a pout, but when matters were approaching a crisis the count took the affair into his own hands. With an intolerance which aped czarism he sent for a young friend of his, Alexander Kolemine, who held an obscure position in the Russian Legation at Berne, and ordered his daughter to marry him. Sonya cried at first, but her father was adamant, and in the end she gave way. The ceremony was performed as secretly as possible, and Sonya Czapski became Madame Kolemine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.