Your having told me about your “House of Life,” and your interest in providing a place for solitude and retreat for all who would come, prompts me to inquire as to the suitability of Matthew’s and my inviting ourselves for a visit of a day or two. The party is scheduled for the 27th of this month. I realize this is short notice, and if it is inconvenient or overly presumptuous of me, we will make other arrangements.

With kind regards,

THADDEUS MCCALLUM

Assistant United States Ambassador

United States Embassy

Berlin

“Presumptuous, indeed!” said the baron to himself, rising from his chair the moment he had finished the letter. “I thought you knew me better than that by now, Thaddeus!”

In ten seconds more he was descending the stairs from his study to the Gute Stube, and in another four minutes was on the telephone with McCallum himself, confirming the arrangements.

43 The Party

43

The Party

Countess Ingrid von Schmundt could not have been more beside herself with mingled anxiety and excitement. Such a flurry of emotions had overwhelmed her during the past days, it was a wonder the poor woman had not withered right away before the day of the party even arrived.

As it was, she had managed to hold herself together, to coordinate the servants’ preparation of the Grand Hall, and now people had begun to arrive. Alone in her boudoir, she sat before the mirror making sure her hair and dress were perfect.

Everyone from Berlin will be here, she thought, unable to keep the perspiration away. It was her chance to step once again into the limelight she had missed for so long. She had chosen a loose-fitting gown of light blue silk, loose enough, she hoped, to conceal the unwanted centimeters that had added themselves to her person.

When her husband had mentioned being asked to host a summer’s event for Berlin’s diplomatic circles, she had been completely unable to contain her glee. Even had she known that she was but a pawn in schemes of much larger import, it would nowise have dampened her enthusiasm.

And that it would almost exactly coincide with Gustav’s twentieth birthday was all the better! She wanted to put on a grand celebration for her son and invite all the most eligible young women in the entire region. Obsessed with what she judged her neighbor’s pomposity, she was determined to demonstrate that she needed the friendship no longer. She would show Marion and that conceited daughter of hers that Gustav was the most eligible young man for a hundred kilometers in any direction!

She wouldn’t even invite them! She would let them hear of it! They would come begging for the alliance in the end, that is, if she just didn’t decide to find some other more suitable young lady for Gustav to marry!