Huneker 's  paper,  which  is  one  of  great  interest  to  all  Meredithians,
opens  with  a  description  of  a  scene  in  a  German  restaurant  in  New
York  some  twenty  years  ago,  where  he  saw  for  the  first  time  '  the
Red  Countess,'  a  striking  and  admirable  figure  of  a  woman.  '  She
must  have  been  in  the  forties,  and  the  contour  of  her  finely  moulded
head,    her  aristocratic  bearing  and   the   air   of  one   accustomed  to


HIS   HEROINES   AND   WOMEN-FOLK  251

command  '  attracted  his  attention.  She  was  none  other  than  the
Countess  Shevitch,  formerly  the  Princess  Racowitza,  originally
Helena  von  Doenniges,  the  original  of  Clotilde.  Her  husband  for
political  reasons  was  self-exiled  in  New  York,  where  both  were
then  supporting  themselves  by  their  pens — the  Countess  had  written
a  book  entitled  '  Rags,'  depicting  the  seamy  side  of  New  York  life
— but  soon  after  this  time  they  returned  to  Europe  on  the  Count
regaining  possession  of  his  estates,  and  their  home  at  Munich,
according  to  Mr.  Huneker,  '  is  a  magnet  for  the  literary,  musical
and  artistic  elements  of  that  delightful  city  on  the  green  river
Isar. '

Quickly  to  summarise  the  facts  that  mainly  concern  us  :  Helena
von  Doenniges  was  the  daughter  of  a  General  of  that  name,
Bavarian  Ambassador  to  Switzerland,  and  both  her  parents  were
extreme  Protestant  types.  She  was  '  educated  in  a  Hebrew-hating
house,'  as  Mr.  Huneker — whom  one  suspects  of  Hebrew  origin —
puts  it.  At  this  time  Ferdinand  Lassalle  (Dr.  Alvan  of  '  The  Tragic
Comedians  ')  was  '  the  fine  flower  of  the  Jewish-German ;  a  chinker,
a  born  leader,  and  one  of  the  handsomest  men  of  his  day. '  Bis-
marck feared  and  respected  him,  and,  though  leader  of  the  German
Democratic  party,  he  had  many  friends  among  the  eminent  public
men  of  the  day.  His  father,  moreover,  was  rich,  and  Ferdinand
himself  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  at  the  bar.  There  were
rumours  that  he  was  dissolute,  and  though  Mr.  Huneker  shows
how  unfounded  and  slanderous  such  stories  must  have  been,  this
was  doubtless  the  cause  of  Helena's  parents  opposing  with  every
device  and  force  the  union  of  their  daughter  with  this  man.  The
facts  of  Lassalle's  relationship  with  the  Countess  Hatzfeldt  (the
Baroness  Lucie  of  the  novel)  are  set  forth  as  follows  by  Mr.
