The widow of a wealthy Viennese banker, Max Goesler, who made such a place for herself in London society that an invitation to her small house in Park Lane became a coveted honor. Gifted with brains, charm and fortune, she had many suitors: the old Duke of Omnium sought her, first as mistress and then as his Duchess; Lord Fawn and Maurice Maule tried to marry her; and finally Phineas Finn, whom she eventually married.

"She was a woman probably something over thirty years of age. She had thick black hair, which she wore in curls,- unlike anybody else in the world, - in curls which hung down low beneath her face.... Her eyes were large, of a dark blue colour, and very bright.... Her forehead was broad and somewhat low. Her nose was not classically beautiful, being broader at the nostrils than beauty required, and, moreover, not perfectly straight in its line. Her lips were thin.... Her chin was well formed, and divided by a dimple which gave to her face a softness of grace which would otherwise have been much missed. But perhaps her great beauty was in the brilliant clearness of her dark complexion.... She was somewhat tall, though by no means tall to a fault, and was so thin as to be almost meagre in her proportions" - Phineas Finn