Baronne

They [the bracelets] now by right belonged to the dowager baronne, but she had insisted on giving them to her son for his bride, who, therefore, wore them on such occasions as the one we are describing.

He certainly was not a herald of peace, and did not bring an olive branch by any means; on the contrary, he brought the news that—by means of threats, and even of violence—Count Waldeck and his sons had forced the Baronne to give up her jewels, her plate, and all the money there was in the château, and then, when she thought that that was a sufficient ransom to buy her liberty from the guests who had come and asked her hospitality, the poor woman had been seized, gagged, tied to her bed-post, and told that if she did not find another two hundred gold crowns within two hours the château would be set on fire, and burned to the ground with her in it.

A German Prince, a little dancer who is rehearsing for a new piece at one of the theatres, the Ambassador of one of the Great Powers, the proprietor of one of the great daily papers, the most popular of our English composers—these were some of the men and ladies whose faces I recognised, while the Princess, who had bowed and smiled to people she knew at half a dozen tables, told me the names of a score of marquis and marquises, and barons and baronnes, who, I if knew my Almanach de Gotha, which I do not, would no doubt have had much significance to me.

The murderer had forced the baronne into a compromising correspondence, enlisted his friends as allies in the epistolary exchange, and displayed her signature to imply her consent.

Olga [Rudge] and her mother [Julia Rudge] were always welcome in Parisian society; they rated high on guest lists that included barons and baronnes, comtes and comtesses, and the occasional prince or princess.