“And if I were to ask your Eminence to let my message take this form?” said Franz Jozef at last.
Throughout his career his Eminence had never once been taken wholly by surprise, but this time, just for the space of a second, his deep-set eyes seemed to open a trifle wider than usual with astonishment.
“The message, in fact, is a souvenir,” continued the Emperor, “a mere trifle, that will make the recipient remember Vienna and the Viennese, in a way I would wish her to do.”
“Her?”
“Yes!”
“Ah! I understand! the Grand Duchess Xenia,” said his Eminence, with a thought of malice.
“No! not the Grand Duchess; she would not value works of art such as these.”
“They are works of art?”
“Of the rarest kind, and intended for a connoisseur who will know how to appreciate them.”
“Will your Majesty deign to name that connoisseur?”