"Very much too picturesque for this part of the world, they can't appreciate these contrasts of colour in this barbarous country," Ad'lin said crossly, as she was wont to receive the actress's advances. "They are far behind the age in Austria! Dieu, qui l'Autriche m'ennuie!"
The actress fell silent, in some confusion.
"What had the poet to say to you, Ad'lin?" asked the Baroness Melkweyser, after she had inspected through her eye-glass each piece of furniture in turn in the drawing-room.
"That he could not digest truffles, and that he means to dedicate his next work to me."
"Ah! the first item is highly interesting, and the last uncommonly flattering," the Melkweyser rejoined.
"Yes, it means that I must order at least fifty copies of the interesting effusion," Ad'lin said fretfully, adding with a half smile, "People in our position have to encourage literature--noblesse oblige!"
The Baroness bit her lip and resumed her voyage of discovery, turning to a cabinet filled with antique porcelain.
"You really cannot think," Ad'lin began, leaving her sofa to join her friend, "how I have longed for you! You are the only link here in Austria between ourselves and civilization. I depend upon your forming an agreeable circle for us here."
It was noteworthy that since Zoë's return to her native land, Adeline's familiarity had seemed far less acceptable to her than it had been in Paris. "An agreeable circle!" she exclaimed, "that is easily said, but you make it very hard for me. You do not want to know our financiers ...."
"The Austrian financiers have no position; even the Rothschilds are not received at Court."