Countess Marguerite Loiewski

https://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2016/09/14/countess-marguerit...

Yes, it’s true; Marguerite’s father was none other than Arthur Pavlovich Nicolas Cassini, Count de Cassini. And her mother? Stephanie van Betz, a famous singer from a family of theater people. Back in 1880, a woman of the theater could not just marry a count willy-nilly. Stephanie and Arthur were married secretly in London, and over the course of Marguerite’s life, Stephanie posed as a servant in their house. Marguerite was publically referred to as the count’s niece or adopted daughter, but was apparently suspicious enough to raise questions.

How did young Cassini overcome this to become the “algebraic x of diplomatic circles?”[2] The Washington Times records that the Count made a trip to Russia in the summer of 1899 and was able to persuade the Emperor to officially recognize Marguerite as Arthur’s daughter (the papers called this “adoption”) and officially declare her a countess.[3] With the weight of Russia behind her, the diplomatic corps was forced to accept Countess Cassini’s place near the head of the table. And after her father became dean of the corps, and Cassini became best friends with newly inaugurated first daughter Alice Roosevelt, she sat at the very head of the table.

http://ru.rodovid.org/wk/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%8C:722487