Loel Guiness, the English banking magnate, was saying. “I have a yacht and a plane, and because of Gloria, I never have to worry about any of it.” It was a few minutes past noon, and Guiness was sitting by the side of the swimming pool at his home in Lantana, Florida, and talking to his guest, Aileen Mehle, better known to the readers of her society column as Suzy. He was extolling the domestic virtues of his wife, Gloria Rubio von Furstenberg Fahkry Guiness, a twice-divorced Mexican beauty who had the lithe figure and regal profile of a princess in an ancient Egyptian frieze. “Just look at her,” said Guiness, pointing to his wife. “Jackie and Ari decide at the very last minute that they would like to come for lunch, and Gloria has everything under control.” Before she snagged her rich husband, Gloria had been a manicurist. But like so many women who managed to scale the heights of society, her origins were of little importance. Born with equal amounts of brains, beauty, and style, she was one of those women Truman Capote lovingly referred to as “swans.”
