Page "Consuelo Vanderbilt" Paragraph 8

Determined to secure the highest-ranking mate possible for her only daughter, a union that would emphasize the preeminence of the Vanderbilt family in New York society, Alva Vanderbilt engineered a meeting between Consuelo and the land-rich, money-poor Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, chatelain of Blenheim Palace.

The matchmaker was a minor American heiress turned major English hostess, Lady Paget ( née Mary " Minnie " Stevens ), the daughter of Mrs. Paran Stevens, the socially ambitious widow of an American hotel entrepreneur who had successfully obtained admittance to the exclusive New York society of the fabled " Four Hundred ".

Lady Paget, always short of money, soon became a sort of international marital agent, introducing eligible American heiresses to British noblemen.