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 Grafin had the presence of mind to laugh in the right key.
Three weeks later the Grafin 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.
"I've just left the dear children at the Rodenstahls'," was the Grafin's greeting.
"Were they looking very happy?" asked the Baroness.
"Wratislav was wearing some new English clothes, so, of course, he was quite happy. I overheard him telling Toni a rather amusing story about a nun and a mousetrap, which won't bear repetition. Elsa was telling every one else a witticism about the Triple Alliance being like a paper umbrella - which seems to bear repetition with Christian fortitude."
"Did they seem much wrapped up in each other?"
"To be candid, Elsa looked as if she were wrapped up in a horse-rug. And why let her wear saffron colour?"
"I always think it goes with her complexion."
"Unfortunately it doesn't. It stays with it. Ugh. Don't forget, you're lunching with me on Thursday."
The Baroness was late for her luncheon engagement the following Thursday.
"Imagine what has happened!" she screamed as she burst into the room.
"Something remarkable, to make you late for a meal," said the Grafin.
"Elsa has run away with the Rodenstahls' chauffeur!"
