One of the major inciting incidents of the story and several of the characters involved were inspired by an anecdote about the 9th Duke of Marlborough and his second wife, Gladys Deacon. Marlborough had first been wed to the American heiress, Consuelo Vanderbilt. The marriage was notoriously unhappy, and after they divorced, Marlborough wed his mistress, Gladys Deacon. Unfortunately, their wedded bliss also soured, though Marlborough’s subsequent conversion to Roman Catholicism made divorc...