Gilded Lily by Isabel Vincent

balls that Lily would have loved to attend. Alfredo’s weeklypoker games continued, complete with the midnight feasts, this time orchestrated by Lily, with a little help from the French chefs at Le Bec Fin, who also helped her organize sumptuous dinner parties at the Monteverde residence.
    It was to one of those dinners that Alfredo invited his friends, the Safra banking brothers—Joseph and Moise. Together with their older brother, Edmond, they had set up their banking business in São Paulo. Edmond now spent most of his time in Geneva, running his Trade Development Bank.
    Edmond Safra was well-known to Alfredo, and Brazil’s other wealthy Jews. He was the banker they sought out when they wanted to hide money offshore, far from the reach of Brazil’s military dictatorship. According to his business associates, Alfredo was among the biggest depositors at Edmond’s bank in Switzerland and also did business with the Safra Bank in São Paulo.
    In addition to the soirees she organized for Alfredo’s business associates and the couple’s friends in Rio, Lily was also much admired for her children’s parties, complete with magicians, clowns, and crowds of happy children. “She threw these great parties for the kids,” said Maria Luisa, who later moved to the United States after her marriage to a fellow Ponto Frio employee in Rio. “It was Lily who gave my daughter her first Barbie.”
    In addition to her hostess skills, Lily also tried to be supportive of Alfredo, especially when he was in the grips of a terrible depression. At one point, in an effort to show solidarity with her husband, Lily checked herself into the exclusive São Vicente Clinic in Rio’s upscale Gavea neighborhood for a sleeping cure, which was a popular form of therapy for mild depression in the 1960s. Alfredo, who was deeply concerned that his new wife was suffering from depression, decided to surprise her when she arrived at the clinic. He loaded his car with a hammer, some nails, and the couple’s Van Gogh that he had asked a friend to transport from the international airport in a Volkswagencamper van. He took seventeen-year-old Victor Sztern with him to help him hang the painting in her room.
    â€œHe could move heaven and earth for the people he loved,” said Sztern, who recalled looking over his shoulder to keep hospital personnel out of the room while Alfredo hammered the nail into the wall of the hospital room and put up the Van Gogh. “He just wanted to surprise Lily, to make sure that even for the short time she was going to be in the hospital she would be happy.”
    Although she eagerly encouraged her new husband’s indulgences, especially when they involved gifts of exquisite jewelry, Lily was guarded about her own extravagances and never told her second husband what she regularly spent, especially on clothing—her passion. Perhaps she worried that Alfredo would react in much the same way Mario had reacted when she spent thousands on lingerie.
    â€œMoney was just paper to her,” recalled Abitbol, who owns an upscale chain of boutiques called Elle et Lui in Rio. “Lily was my best customer. She would go into my stores and buy ten or fifteen dresses, at about $200 each.”
    Although he was thrilled with his best customer’s shopping habits, Abitbol also felt extremely uncomfortable about the terms. “‘Don’t tell Fred.’ That’s what she always said to me,” recalled Abitbol. “It was always our little secret how much of Fred’s money she spent.”
    After one of Lily’s afternoon shopping sprees at one of his boutiques, Abitbol found himself dining with Alfredo and Lily the same evening. He was surprised to see that Lily was not wearing any of her latest purchases from his store.
    â€œDidn’t you like any of the dresses you bought?” asked Abitbol, in a whisper, while Alfredo was out of earshot.
    Lily