Courts and courtiers -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English; Germany -- Fiction
Neumann was an ex-barber, and was filled, especially in the direction of
his original calling, with that passionate conscientiousness, that
insatiable knowledge of the ideal, which gives rise to the highest
skill. He did not shave like any ordinary shaver, he was not content to
leave no stubble behind, he shaved in such a way that every shadow of a
beard, every recollection of one, was removed, and without hurting the
skin he managed to restore to it all its softness and smoothness. He cut
Klaus Heinrich's hair exactly square above the ears, and arranged it
with all the assiduity required, in his opinion, by this preparation for
the Prince's ceremonial appearance. He managed that the parting should
come over the left eye and run slanting back over the crown of the head,
so that no tufts or wisps should stick up on it; he brushed the hair on
the right side up from the forehead into a prim crest on which no hat or
helmet could make an impression. Then Klaus Heinrich, with his help,
squeezed himself carefully into his uniform of lieutenant in the
Grenadier Guards, whose high-braided collar and tight fit favoured a
dignified bearing, put on the lemon-coloured silk band and the flat gold
chain of the House Order, and went down to the picture gallery where the
members of the family and the foreign relations of the Grand Ducal pair
were waiting. The Court was waiting in the adjoining Hall of the
Knights, and it was there that Johann Albrecht himself invested his son
with the crimson mantle.
Herr von Bühl zu Bühl had marshalled a procession, the ceremonial
procession from the Hall of the Knights to the Throne-room. It had cost
him no little worry. The composition of the Court made it difficult to
contrive an impressive arrangement, and Herr von Bühl especially
lamented the lack of upper Court officials, which on such occasions made
itself most severely felt. The Royal Mews had recently been put under
Herr von Bühl, and he felt himself quite up to his various functions,
but he asked everybody how he could be expected to make a good
impression, when the most important posts were filled simply by the
master of the Buck-hounds, von Stieglitz, and the director of the Grand
Ducal Theatre, a gouty general.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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