D.V. Read Online Free Page A

She had practically no clothes on. She had one big turquoise ring on her toe…so pretty. There was a terrible orgy where everyone consumed everyone else…but she didn’t have to do a thing.
    Diaghilev was more than pleased, because he knew that the entire season at the Châtelet would be supported by Lord Guinness. Lord Guinness was also pleased as punch, because he had his front. And that’s where everything happened, and 1909, that’s the year it happened, and they say that’s how it happened.

CHAPTER THREE
    In retrospect, I adore the way I was brought up. I adore the amount I knew before what I know today and I adore the way I got to know it. My experiences were so innocent and so easy and so charming. I grew up in the springtime of so many things. There was still the British Empire. I’m a product of the empire. I don’t think anyone realizes what the riches were like.
    I’ve had no formal education; I’m the first to say it. But my family did think of the most wonderful things for my sister and me to do. They sent us from Paris to London with our nurses and we sat in the bleachers and watched the coronation of George V in 1911. The excitement lasted three days and three nights, so you can imagine what I could say about that . You could say a child of my age wouldn’t have taken it all in. But you have no idea what I did take in, what I did see….
    Everything was horses. There were skewbald horses, piebald horses, and there were tiger horses, roans, greys—those beautiful prancing animals bred in Hanover especially for the equipages, the carriages, and the liveries. Terribly big-time stuff.
    Everything was a principality, you see. Don’t forget how many states, for instance, there were in Germany. I can’t even remember the names anymore—Hanover (they were the ones who bred the horses), Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg, Schaumburg-Lippe. There was the King of the Belgians with all his equipage. The Kings and Princes of all those Balkans—Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia—with their equipages. And the Czar of all the Russias—I mean all the Russias—with his equipage. The Hungarians. The Rumanians. And the Turks. And the Chinese . And the Japanese . We really had to know our geography then and, what’s more, we really did. The mélange was something so incredible. I love a mélange. That is still Europe to me—a mélange of bloods, races, chemistry….
    Don’t forget how bizarre it all was. I mean, the King of Serbia —that’s bizarre! And don’t forget that King George and Queen Mary were Emperor and Empress of India. The maharajahs were a dime a dozen, and they put jewels on their elephants—their elephants! They all had elephants if they were any good! Do you realize what an elephant is today? They’re even hard to find in India . During the coronation in London, my sister and I saw them go by like taxis on Park Avenue. Until the night was black. It was so exhausting. I was so sleepy and so bouleversée .
    Maharajahs and maharanis, the Czar and the Czarina, the Kaiser and the Kaiserin…and Queen Mary and King George V! She passed by for just a few minutes, but to this day I would recognize her as I recognize you. Of course, later I lived there for many years of her reign. There was something about the way she sat and her proportions and the size of her hat which was immediately recognizable and never changed. A very, very good idea, hats—especially for queens. The toque was worn over a pompadour and fringe, giving Her Majesty hauteur and revealing the face. Queen Mary’s hats tended to look like the head of a secretary bird, a sort of a brush of a thing; they looked as though they could be taken off and used for something—to dust the house.
    Queen Mary was Edward VII’s daughter-in-law, and she was an Edwardian. I’m mad about her