An American Beauty: A Novel of the Gilded Age Inspired by the True Story of Arabella Huntington Who Became the Richest Woman in the Country

Lucy Clarence from Town Topics Publishing Company arrives at The Homestead, the Huntingtons’ residence in Throggs Neck, New York, in August 1902. She is not allowed into the mansion but is taken to meet Arabella, the widow of Collis Peter Huntington, in one of the greenhouses. It has been two years since Collis’s death, and yet Arabella still only wears black.

Lucy’s employer, Colonel William Mann, has sent her with an offer to purchase a subscription to his folio titled “Fads and Fancies of Representative Americans at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Being a Portrayal of Their Tastes, Diversions, and Achievements.” He is profiling Arabella’s late husband (and nephew) Henry Edwards Huntington.

Lucy states the colonel’s price: $10,000. This is justified by the extensive research the colonel has conducted, including interviewing people like “The actual wife of Johnny Worsham” (5) for the profile. The offer is a thinly veiled attempt at blackmail: Colonel Mann seeks to use his knowledge of Arabella’s secret past to extort money from her. Arabella claims she will write a cheque after reading the profile first and sends Lucy away with a vase of violets from the greenhouse.