Queen of Diamonds

<DIV>The last and longest private owner of the Hope Diamond Evalyn Walsh McLean purchased the diamond when she was only twenty-four; spent more than $200000 on a fabulous honeymoon and ended up in a Paris hotel without enough money to pay the bill; wandered the gloomy rooms of her home imagining crawling reptiles while overcoming her morphine addiction; and stood in the rain wearing a fur coat and clutching the Hope Diamond as her beloved Washington Post was auctioned. The deep indigo stone is but a single facet of her rags-to-riches story.</DIV></div>