Lotusland

Ralph Kinton Stevens buys the estate, which he names "Tanglewood" and uses grounds for home and commercial nursery in 1882.
In February, Madame Walska makes her concert debut at the Biltmore Morning Musicale, sharing the bill with tenor Enrico Caruso. Madame Walska makes her operatic debut in Havana, Cuba in December. The performance is not a success. She meets with Harold McCormick of International Harvester, who is a key supporter of Chicago Opera Company, to pursue hopes of performing there.
Dr. Fraenkel dies of a "stomach ailment." Walska is devastated. Three months later, aboard Aquitania en route to Paris, she meets Alexander Cochran, sole heir of Smith Carpet Manufacturing. He proposes two days later and several times again until she accepts and they marry on September 15. Harold McCormick, who had received a divorce, sails to Paris to ask her to leave Cochran. Though Walska regrets her marriage, she refuses.

Madame Walska begins her lifelong interest in mysticism and the meaning of life, attends séances, consults the Ouija board, explores yoga, astrology, meditation, telepathy, numerology, Christian Science, and Rosicrucianism.

Cochran's jealously over her career - and friendship with McCormick - forces Walska to cancel her long-anticipated performance with the Chicago Opera.

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