"On the contrary, back then there were quite a few who regarded him as a playboy."
Anna muttered to herself in a trance.
"You know, my great-great-grandfather was the first in the family to proclaim at a public banquet, 'If given the choice, I would rather be a painter than a Colonel Officer in the Cavalry Legion by the Emperor's side.' He almost drove his father crazy with that statement, and even his friends and aides were perplexed."
"Historically, during the same winter he made that remark, the Old Count's father, whose health had been poor, passed away. It's hard to say these events weren't directly related."
Anna spoke in the tone of telling a cold joke: "Sounds like a proper nonconforming playboy, right?"
Eliot awkwardly twitched his nose.
She hadn't expected Miss Ilina to bring this up at such a moment.
The female secretary could imagine.
When the Old Count uttered such words, the atmosphere at the banquet must have been so silent you could hear a pin drop.
