Note 25 — Chapter XIII

Another lady employed by the Russian Government to worm out State secrets was the Countess Stadnicka, whose acquaintance I made in recent years in Vienna, and she would often ask me the most difficult questions, which I never attempted to answer. She told me that for information of a certain nature she was often paid very large sums. The Countess Stadnicka had very lovely blue eyes, which were universally admired, and a fine figure, but she was no longer in her first youth. She was the mother of Graf von Metternich, who was the owner of vast estates and a minor, and the Countess had a lawsuit in Vienna to obtain control over her son’s property during his minority. She was a wonderful linguist, speaking English, French, German, Italian and Russian fluently, and could tell one more about the Austrian nobility than anyone else I ever met in Vienna, as she was a Viennese by birth, and her father, who was one of the old nobility himself, had occupied a high position. She seemed to know everyone, but though a woman of wonderful intelligence, she had a rather spiteful tongue, and was therefore feared by some people. She always spoke to me in French and often said: “Vous êtes drôle, vous, car vous n’aimez que le fruit pas mûr, ce qui est d’abord très fade et n’a point de goût.”