Madame de Lesseps has been espe
cially anxious to shine as an entertainer
i and has spent, as she still spends, the
‘ old man’s money with lavish hands. She
1 is, therefore, hated cordially by the poor
people in France, who have lost heavily
by an investnient in the Panama canal
enterprise. At the same time she gets
little sympathy in Paris from friends of
the de* Lesseps family, who have spread
industriously in the last few days some
astonishing statements as to her influ
ence in breaking down the aged en
gineer’s mental and physical strength.
Driven Ne-ri.v razv.
They say that for the last twelve years,
or even since the inception of the canal
enterjirise, De Lesseps has been so har
rassed and betrayed by his young wife
that he has been hardly accountable for
his words or his actions. She
was sixteen years old when
De Lesseps married her, and he
■ had passed sixty. For the first seven or
■ eight years their life was happily spent.
■ Then she began a career of reckless un
i faithfulness under her husband's own
roof. At her instance, he entertained
lavishly at the castle la Chenac.
?♦ <'* t <lcl 4*U 'CH
Under tho pretext of exceptional hospi
tality she made excursions with guests
which always resulted in small scandals
within the household. Once, a friend of
Charles de Lesseps says, she ran away
with a French senator to Nice and did not
return until Charles de Lesseps, who hast
ened after the couple, had driven away
her companion at the point ot a revolver,
and had there given her the choice be
tween a divorce and immediate departure
lor home.
