The Chronicles of Clovis
"But think of his reputation! If half the things they say about him are true"
"Probably three-quarters of them are. But what of it? You don't want an archangel for a son-in-law."
"I don't want Wratislav. My poor Elsa would be miserable with him."
"A little misery wouldn't matter very much with her; it would go so well with the way she does her hair, and if she couldn't get on with Wratislav she could always go and do good among the poor."
The Baroness picked up a framed photograph from the table.
"He certainly is very handsome," she said doubtfully; adding even more doubtfully, "I dare say dear Elsa might reform him."
The Gräfin had the presence of mind to laugh in the right key.
•••••
Three weeks later the Gräfin bore down upon the Baroness Sophie in a foreign bookseller's shop in the Graben, where she was, possibly, buying books of devotion, though it was the wrong counter for them.
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