While the crowd was buzzing around us on every side, Ompteda took to reviewing some of our acquaintances that were there and also those who entered subsequently.
‘Since you were last in Vienna,’ he said, ‘the capital has suffered a siege and a foreign occupation; nevertheless, you’ll find few changes. Matters lending themselves to ridicule are as plentiful as ever; they are practically the image of the immobility of the Austrian government. Only, they are becoming more apparent, in consequence of the century’s progress.
‘The drawing-rooms of society are just as you left them. The one in which we are seated has not ceased to be the special resort of the friends of our charming _queen_. Never was a title more deserved, and her subjects have never revolted against her yoke. I have seen few women who have as many friends as she; but, what is more rare, she has the talent of binding them so closely together that in spite of events and absence they never become strangers to each other. A common affection for her seems to be the basis of her government; our union is its strength, and our happiness a guarantee of its duration. Honestly, I do not think there is a more easy despotism than hers, or a code more gentle to observe. In her empire, you’ll find, as always, politeness without sham, frankness without abruptness, mutual regard without flattery, and willingness to oblige without constraint.
‘There is, on the foremost plane, dear Major Fuchs, the happy and peaceful possessor of this treasure. We all envy him. He continues, as of old, the enthusiastic champion of the organisation of the Vienna Militia, to which he owes his grade, and on which, he maintains, depend the glory and the salvation of the Austrian monarchy.
‘Next comes the Comtesse Laure, his wife, ever the same, kind and good, and wholly unaffected. Her girlish face seems to be the mirror of her excellent heart. There are women whose features are more regularly beautiful, but hers are stamped with a sweet and animated expression which the mere art of pleasing would vainly endeavour to imitate. And the real secret of keeping her friends attached to her for all time lies probably in her conciliatory disposition, which, however, is not marked by any weakness where firmness is required.