Now let me tell you about the remarkable Countess de Behague, who was very, very wealthy and has been described as proud, wilful and generous and being driven by a "demon informed by taste and knowledge".

A dazzling hostess, she employed the poet Paul Valery as her librarian, ran three homes in France and owned an ocean-going yacht, the Nirvana, in which she circled the globe seeking art treasures to add to what became a fabulous collection.

Martine Marie Pol, Comtesse de Behague, was born in 1870. Her fortune was so great that she was able to live in a grand style. Apart from a palatial house in the Rue Saint-Dominique in Paris, she owned the Chateau de Fleury, said to be a perfect architectural survival from the Louis X111 period. She also had a villa on the Ile de Gien in the south of France.

She entertained lavishly in all her properties, and her guests drank from Roman goblets or Bohemian crystal, according to their social standing. Marcel Proust, the French writer, worked her into his novels under her own name as a legendary hostess.

What has been called an extraordinary accretion of treasures included works by Renoir, Degas and Cezanne, the finest furniture, tapestries, carpets, coins, porcelain and lace. A catalogue of her best art possessions, prepared by the Louvre, ran to four volumes.

A relative tells of visiting her at the Chateau de Fleury. You had to pass a life-size tiger in Japanese lacquer at the foot of the stairs. They creaked as you climbed to a balustraded balcony overlooking a sunlit garden. There she lay draped in furs, with exotic clothes and green wig beside her, together with a pot of raisin jam for breakfast.

She died in 1939 (the war would have been much too much for her), and her treasures went to her nephew, the Marquis Hubert de Ganay. He was a good looking chap and was chosen as principal recipient because, as she put it, "beauty befits beauty". The present marquis decided that enough was enough and put the bulk of the collection up for sale in Monaco in December, 1987.

It was an auction landmark, and hundreds of dealers descended on the spot. When I tell you that one gold brooch in the shape of an eagle and studded with garnets went for 4.4 million francs (that's nearly one and a half million pounds), and a small Greek bronze Apollo for 8.3 million francs, you will realise this was the sale of the century.

In the Sotheby's catalogue for the sale, the Marquis de Ganay explained how his father inherited the collection in 1939, and how much of it had to remain in packing cases until after the war. One can imagine how the Nazis would have loved to get their hands on it. He was seeing some of the treasures on sale for the first time, because "Auntie Martine" had considered them too precious to be allowed within reach of the children. We saw the same reticence on the part of Madeline's Auntie May, who kept the best china locked up in a display cabinet, for production on "royal" occasions only.

Don't feel too sorry for the marquis. The Ganays themselves are left with one of the greatest surviving family collections in France.

I apologise for dwelling at length on this lady, and for the poor quality of the illustrations below, but it does prove that Behague is a name to be reckoned with, doesn't it?

Those of you who are observant will now ask. Was she really and truly a full blooded Behague? There is no doubt that, early on, she married a Count de Bearn, but she found him distasteful, ditched him very quickly, and reverted to her maiden name. Let's admit it, Behague sounds much better than Bearn, and perhaps he preferred the quiet life and couldn't tell a Rembrandt from a Renoir.

Philosophical note: Those not quite so well off Behagues who read this should count their blessings. They may have more small treasures around them than the proud Countess de Behague could ever afford.

But we are not yet finished with the nobility. Pay attention. I am about to start quoting the last thoughts of the above lady's grandmama.

The date is September 11, 1884, and the place is Paris. Victoire Felicie Builliot, Countess de Behague, has just signed a codicil to accompany her last will and testament.

I bequeath by way of precipent and extra portion to my daughter Madame d' Aramont the sum of two hundred and sixty thousand francs which revert to me from her father who found fault with her and cut it off on account of her devotion to me.

Later, on June 10, 1885, she made this declaration:

I offer my soul to God hoping that in his mercy he will deign to receive me and reunite me to my beloved son, and later on to my dear children.

I leave to my dear daughter my necklace of emeralds and diamonds, to my five grand daughters - Bertha and Martine de Behague, Marie de Jouffroy, Clauda de Montesquion and Amelia de Aramont - each a row of my pearl necklaces; to my four grandsons - Jean de Jouffroy, Camillo, Andres and Guillaume de Aramont - the sum of ten thousand francs each.

The house which I built for my son in my courtyards of the Avenue Bosquet cost me about one hundred and fifty thousand francs without reckoning the matter of ground on which it is built, each metre costing seventy two francs. My son has very greatly extended it. Then upon the house built by me he has incurred such expenses in the way of woodwork, painted ceilings and marble that it would be very difficult to estimate them.

I therefore give to my grand daughters de Behague the house as it stands but they must give to the estate one half of the sum of one hundred and forty thousand francs expended by me in building it. If the Guardianship Council should not prefer their keeping the house upon those terms they would be entitled to heavy indemnities for what their father has done to the house built by me, and the ground must be accounted for but at the price at which I bought it.

My son has received one hundred thousand francs advanced upon the pension of ten thousand francs I granted him as well as his sister. She must receive the equivalent out of my estate.

I give to Catherine Doucher and to Louis Doucher her husband, my two faithful and devoted servants, a life annuity of eighteen hundred francs revertible to the survivor, and the picture of the woman who is singing near the window in my morning room.

I bequeath all my servants two years wages.

I bequeath to Lauxi de Kergegur, my dear sister in law, the marble group of three children.

I leave to Monseigneur Vangeniery, Archbishop of Reims, the copy of the Madonna della Sedia which is over my bed, with the expression of my gratitude. I likewise leave ten thousand francs in order that he may dispose of the same in good works and in masses for our souls.

I bequeath to my daughter the Marchioness de Tramon the sum of two hundred and sixty thousand francs coming to her from her father and which her devotion to me caused her to lose.

I have so great a fear of being buried alive that I earnestly beg that all necessary incisions may be made in me and that all the necessary be taken to ascertain for certain that I am no longer living. Adieu my dear children. There is a heaven I trust for all of us to meet again. Pray for me and for my dear Octave. I require a very simple interment and liberal alms to the poor upon the plate,

I desire to leave a remembrance to Louis de Montesquion - a picture of his selection.

My blessing on you all.

Every other will is null.

Paris. November 5, 1884.

(Signed) Victoire Felicie Builliot Countess de Behague.

You will have observed that there was no love lost between the countess and her husband, and she certainly seems to have controlled the purse strings well and looked after her family. One can only hope that grand