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European princess shines and swizzles

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IN our continuing quest to keep you informed about European nobility in town we now have a change of gender.

For yesterday we joined Princess Martha at her suite in the Regent for afternoon tea - at least it was for Keeping Posted. The princess, with her refined tastes, opted for champagne.

''I'm a bubbly sort of person,'' she intimated as she dived into her handbag and produced a gold Cartier swizzle stick from her handbag.

''Martha is known for her exquisite swizzle sticks,'' she announced, swizzling ever so delicately, ''they were all gifts from my dear departed husband.'' Hubby, as it happens, was Paris-based Russian Prince Stas Kropotkin of Kiev, who died three years ago leaving half-Italian, half-American Martha with a sizeable fortune and homes at the best addresses: Paris (Avenue Foch), New York (Park Avenue) and PalmBeach (on the lake).

''I've come through a terrible three years,'' she disclosed. ''First my husband died, and then my dearest friend, Prince Johannes Von Thurn und Taxis, died. It was all too much.

''In fact, news of the death of Johannes came as such a shock because I had talked to him from Washington at his hospital bed in Munich that morning.'' But now, sweeping her flaming red hair away from her face, she was on the offensive. ''I must tell you, darling. There is absolutely no truth in the rumour that I am getting married to an Argentinian polo player,'' she stressed, passing over a pile of cuttings from leading gossip columns in America and Europe that seemed to indicate otherwise.

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