Crossword-Solution: ZIBELINE 8 letters, 3 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 19

Madame Martin, slender and erect in her zibeline corsage opening on a flood of lace, awakened with the charming brightness of her gray eyes the good man, who was susceptible to the graces of women.

Her real name is Valentine de Vermont, and she is the daughter of a fabulously wealthy French-American dealer in furs, and when, after his death, she goes to Paris to spend her colossal fortune, and to make restitution to the man from whom her father won at play the large sum that became the foundation of his wealth, certain lively Parisian ladies, envying her her rich furs, gave her the name of Zibeline, that of a very rare, almost extinct, wild animal.

Zibeline's American unconventionality, her audacity, her wealth, and generosity, set all Paris by the ears.

LETTER FROM JULES CLARETIE TO THE AUTHOR MY DEAR FRIEND: I have often declared that I never would write prefaces! But how can one resist a fine fellow who brings one an attractive manuscript, signed with a name popular among all his friends, who asks of one, in the most engaging way, an opinion on the same--then a word, a simple word of introduction, like a signal to saddle? I have read your Zibeline, my dear friend, and this romance--your first-- has given me a very keen pleasure.

Portraits? You have not drawn any--neither in the drawing-rooms where Zibeline scintillates, nor in the foyer of the Comedie Francaise, where for so long a time you have felt yourself at home.