Table of Contents
Prologue: A Woman in the Arena ix
Part 1 Miss Chase
1 "Qualified to Ornament Any Society" 3
2 "I Shall Strive to Be First Wherever I May Be" 12
3 "How Short Then Is This Life!" 20
4 The Belle of Columbus 28
5 The Belle of Washington 39
6 The Boy Governor 45
7 Mrs. Lincoln's Rival 60
8 Wedding of the Decade 74
Part 2 Mrs. Sprague
9 "Imagine My Disappointment" 87
10 "Our Accomplished Countrywoman" 96
11 "More Unfitness Day by Day" 101
12 "I Am Told That She Actually Controls the Entire Affair" 108
13 "You Have Been Most Cruelly Deceived" 120
14 "I Almost Hate This Man" 128
15 "She's Capable of Hitting Him" 134
16 Some Dared Call It Treason 142
17 End of an Era 148
18 End of an Empire 156
19 "Intended by Their Creator for Each Other" 163
20 "Mrs. Conkling Is Not Here This Winter" 172
21 "The Now Notorious Outbreak" 182
22 "The Bird Has Flown" 201
Part 3 Kate Chase Again
23 "A Dinner with the Queen" 211
24 "As Much Alone as Cleopatra" 216
25 Gilded Age Woman 228
26 Stalwart Woman 235
27 An Unmarried Woman 239
28 An Independent Woman 243
29 "What We Have Is Good" 252
30 "None Outshone Her" 260
Epilogue 267
Acknowledgments 271
Notes 275
Selected Bibliography 355
Index 365
Photographs following page 184