She explained that the idea of wearing the sleeves was disagreeable to them; therefore the court had passed over the point and made a compromise: the Queen received them at the summer palace, Drottningholm, en toilette de ville. In this way the difficulty had been temporarily overcome, but now it seemed they wished me to draw the chestnuts out of the fire.
"What am I to do?" I asked. "The only thing I can see is to leave Stockholm, my home, and my family, and come back in the summer when I can wear a bonnet."
I meant this as a tremendous satire, but she took it quite seriously and said, "That would be wiser."
I smiled and, handing her the letter I had in my hand, I said, "In this letter from the grande maîtresse she said you were to present me."
"Of course I am to present you, but I refuse to wear the sleeves."
"If such is the case," I said, "what would you advise me to do?"
She answered: "I would advise you to avoid wearing the sleeves. You will make a precedent which all the Corps Diplomatique will resent."
"Why should the ladies object to the sleeves?" I ventured to ask. "Are they so unbecoming?"
"It is not that they are unbecoming, but the Ministers' wives dislike being dictated to. They say that they represent their sovereigns, and object to be told what they shall wear and what they shall not wear."
I remarked that at the Court of St. James's no lady ever dreamt of objecting to wear the three plumes and the long tulle veil prescribed by that court, and I could not see any difference so long as it was their Majesties' wish.