NEW YORK — Madeleine Albright lives alone in the U.N. ambassador's apartment in the Waldorf Towers. Her own color sense dictated changes in the decor of the rambling suite once occupied by former ambassadors George Bush and Pat Moynihan.

The pink and green rooms were repainted cream. Borrowed contemporary American art--huge paintings by Jackson Pollack and Louise Nevelson--were hung on the walls. And personal touches were added with framed photographs of her three grown daughters, as well as a hint of glamour with a large black-and-white photograph showing Albright with her new best friend, Barbra Streisand.

Still, Albright's home--with its formal tables and chintz couches--looks like a museum.

"It's weird," Albright says. "I feel like Eloise.

"You know," she adds, pointing out another empty guest room, "other ambassadors lived here with families."

She doesn't have to spell it out.

At 57, Albright has had a full life--a childhood during which she fled Czechoslovakia not once but twice, a 1950s fairy-tale marriage that ended in a 1980s divorce, and a career that went far beyond her expectations to where few women have gone before.

She is the ultimate study in the graceful outsider always moving closer to being an insider. Her early years as the good daughter were shaped by a father whose principles drove him to live in exile. Her marriage exposed her to the American elite but it was not enough, so she plugged away to have her own career. Later she became a member of the loyal opposition during the Democratic Party's "out" years. And now as a player on President Clinton's foreign policy team, she pushes her own principles forcefully in private but speaks for the group in public as its unified voice.

Finally, Albright has the chance to move center stage: For about six months her name has been in play as a possible replacement for Secretary of State Warren Christopher. He doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon, but the rumors of Albright's candidacy raise the question of whether this accomplished outsider can become the consummate insider and really run things.

"I've had my ups and downs," Albright says. "These days I am very up. I love what I'm doing. I'm having the time of my life."

But if she sometimes feels lonely in her repainted life in the Waldorf Towers, wait until she goes south on Monday. Wait until she hits Jesse Helms country.