at long last love; After enduring decades as the tabloids' favorite "other woman," Camilla Parker Bowles is finally getting her prince.

Byline: Hamish Bowles

My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great grandfather-so how about it?" was apparently the irresistible opener posed by irresistible Camilla Shand, meeting Prince Charles for the first time at a polo match in 1970. The forward Miss Shand was referring to her forebear the superb Mrs. Keppel, who "turned adultery into an art," as biographer Diana Souhami has written. Alice Keppel, King Edward VII's "Favorita," was the paradigm of the orchidaceous Belle poque seductress. Her Junoesque figure bedecked in Worth gowns and magnificent jewels, as her daughter Violet Trefusis put it, "she resembled a Christmas tree laden with presents for everyone."

The charismatic Parker Bowles, 57, is the quintessence of classic British style, and she is, in many ways, also the perfect consort for a future British king. She looks magnificent dressed for the hunt in traditional riding clothes, and favors absolute simplicity for her evening gowns and formal day clothes (generally given an outing at the races). She also harbors a passion for the Englishwoman's great weakness: a flamboyant hat. "She's very stylish indeed," says Philip Treacy, the milliner ...