American Lady : The Life of Susan Mary Alsop (9781101601167) Read Online Free PDF

found that there was more complexity to Bill than his gentle temperament initially let on. As far as his health was concerned, she thought she could cure him.
    The mothers made their inspections. Susan Mary was invited to meet the formidable Anna at her house in Lenox, Massachusetts. (Anna had remarried a bishop, Monsignor Davies, after William Patten’s death in 1927.) In turn, Susan Jay came to New York to meet her daughter’s beau. Having cared for her own husband during his asthma attacks, she had doubts about Bill’s possible recovery, but Susan Mary and Bill were determined to marry and the rest of the family stood behind them. The date was set for October.
    Marietta’s wedding to Desmond FitzGerald in Northeast Harbor gave Bill and Susan Mary a chance to rehearse, for they were both in the bridal procession. Bill was not at his best, thin and stiff in his jacket, looking like an elegant scarecrow with hollow cheeks and a set smile. His fiancée wore a sea-green dress in draped jersey with a high collar and nasturtiums in her hair that made her look prim and silly. There were torrential rains and the guests spent the entire evening huddled around the radio listening to the news. The German army had invaded Poland the previous day.
    A few weeks later, on October 28, 1939, in the little white chapel on his Long Island estate, Susan Mary’s uncle, DelanceyJay, led her down the aisle. She and Bill had lost little time, for they knew, like Marietta and Desmond and indeed their entire generation, that war was looming. They needed to hurry if they wanted to live and love before it began.
    A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
    For their honeymoon in November 1939, the Pattens rented a cottage at Cuernavaca, near Mexico City. It was covered with balconies and had a pool, three bedrooms, and a cascading series of five different gardens. From the sitting room, there was a view of the violet hills and snow-capped volcanoes in the distance. Susan Mary played at being the lady of the house, and discussed menus with the cook, who patiently endured her dictionary Spanish and served exquisite meals. Bill went riding, played golf, and shot pigeons. Susan Mary could hear his breathing improve. The little city of Cuernavaca, with its pink houses and tile roofs, was known for having a warm and gentle climate. On weekends, it filled up with foreigners and Mexicans leaving the capital to get some fresh air. Susan Mary enjoyed having guests for dinner and wrote her mother candid and lighthearted letters almost daily. She was proud to get by so well on her own. Amid the serenity of those few months in Mexico, she still tried to find out as much as she could about the developing war, which she found very strange indeed.
    After the shock of Hitler’s brutal attack on Poland, the American people were convinced that he could not face down the British naval blockade and France’s impenetrable Maginot Line. It was also thought that the difference between German andRussian railroad gauges would preclude the continuation of the German campaign on the Eastern Front. The April 1940 invasion of Denmark and Norway, followed by that of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France the following month, soon cast aside these illusions. Congress authorized the draft of all men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five, and President Roosevelt sent fifty destroyers to the British. Although the vast majority of Americans hoped for an Allied victory and praised England’s courage in the air battle with Germany that had begun in August 1940, they were not ready to get involved. A significant number of politicians were even actively campaigning against American intervention, together with influential groups, such as the America First Committee, whose supporters included Charles A. Lindbergh, an admirer of the Luftwaffe, who thought Great Britain should make peace with the Axis powers. Roosevelt and his Republican adversary, Wendell Willkie, were careful about their