I was sufficiently recovered from my nervous condition or else the booze was beginning to work to be able to discuss with Rudi the merits of checked or striped trousers, which had been the great debate among the London nobs that year. I was a check-er myself, having the height and leg for it, but Rudi thought they looked bumpkinish, which only shows what damned queer taste they had in Austria in those days. Of course, if youll put up with Metternich youll put up with anything.
