Preoccupied by a serious injury to his son and like most other potential candidates

Preoccupied by a serious injury to his son, and like most other potential candidates intimidated by Bush's huge lead in the polls after the Gulf War, Gore chose not to run in 1992. Harriman gravitated to Clinton, attracted by his intellect and energy - not to mention networking skills that matched her own. Once he had won the nomination, Clinton delighted Harriman by picking Gore as his running mate, to which she responded by raising $3.2m at a single fundraiser that September at her farm in Virginia. On his first trip to the capital as President-elect, a glittering soiree for Clinton at N Street was preordained. Back in 1988, her poulain for the Democratic nomination was a promising young Senator from Tennessee named Al Gore Jr, well connected to the Washington establishment and - just as Averell would have liked - deeply versed in foreign policy.

But Gore's campaign quickly collapsed, and Pamela would have to make do with Michael Dukakis, whose appearance at her home is remembered mainly for the anxiety of his hostess that he would not slip off the narrow podium where he stood and crash through the $60m Van Gogh on the wall immediately behind him.The painting survived but, at the hands of George Bush, Dukakis did not. A settlement was reached last Christmas, under which she agreed with the Harriman family jointly to pursue "certain claims against other parties." These parties include former fellow trustee Clark Clifford, now almost 90.However, politics once more may yet be a distraction from such unpleasantnesses. Pamela's quarrel with the Harriman heirs turned poisonous, with a lawsuit alleging she had mismanaged and squandered $30m placed for them in a trust. Whatever else, Pamela Harriman is not a creature of the electronic age.Even old alliances have frayed.

Clark Clifford, the Democratic lawayer and elder statesman, for whom she gave a much noted reception in 1991 when Clifford was a virtual pariah over his involvement in the BCCI bank scandal, is now a foe. As for other pristine standard bearers of the Contract with America, they wouldn't venture within miles of possible infection at an old-fashioned Georgetown salon. Even the leader of the revolution, Newt Gingrich, is a quieter, more chastened soul these days, scarcely visible except when the House Speaker makes the odd appearance as guest host on Larry King live. Ronald Reagan and George Bush were in the White House, but her parties, not theirs, were the capital's most prized.In some respects, the Washington she will return to is a drabber place. Her departure to Paris, and the death last December of Evangeline Bruce, ended the legendary era of great Democratic hostesses. The best the Republicans have to offer is Arianna Huffington (nee Stassinopoulos).