Princess Bernheim Waldman

Poliachinsky (Belle for short) is

utterly ecstatic. Once again she has

won at her diabolical little game to

forestall her own demise.

In her ninety years, she has been

everywhere and has known every-

one from crowned princes to royal

concubines, famous men of letters

to the legendary business titans of

the past century, and she has sur-

vived them all. Poor, unsuspecting

Donald Lang, a New York writer,

has become perhaps too fascinated

by Belle and her strange social life,