The Craze of Christina — page 98: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

94 The Craze of Christina. above accepting even more enduring gifts, such as brooches, bangles and pins, in diamonds, of course, but not in compromising diamonds, from which naturally her virtuous soul would have recoiled with pious horror. But there can be nothing compromising in a diamond frog, fly or beetle! in a jeweled scent-bottle, or in a carved and painted fan! Such gifts as these are on a totally different plane to tiaras and bracelets and such like, and no right-minded husband or censorious-tonzued acquaintance can possibly raise any unpleasant objection to them. So Nora Bruhen also was playing the first card of her game to-day, and very successfully too, up to the present moment. Clifford in fact was deeply grateful to her; she had arrived before anybody else, and had made herself extremely useful immediately. She had overhauled the tea-fable, improved the floral decorations by a dexterous touch or two, suggested an alteration of arrangements tothe maid-servants in charge, pushed away a sofa that blocked the way and dragged forward a chair or two into useful prominence. Then she had a little confidential talk to the director of the Blue Hungarians, whereby the programme was slightly modified; and all this had been achieved so quickly and easily that Clifford realized that a master mind Gomiceb (00) KS (e(0)