Alas, you have to care about politics, even if you don’t want to. But there are many other important things to care about. For instance, the choice of what to wear may be of great import. What to wear to flatter obesity—no, to hide pregnancy. A pregnancy best hidden, since everyone will correctly assume that the father is the lover, not the elderly husband. A voluminous gown? A loose dress? And perhaps a shawl arranged over it, several shawls despite the heat, since their wearer is the mistress of the art of draping shawls. And what to wear to respond to disgrace already made public, to show that you don’t acknowledge what people whose opinion you care about are saying behind your back. If you are a hero, you wear your ribands, orders, stars, and medals. All of them. Sometimes you wear the ankle-length sable-trimmed scarlet pelisse presented to you by the Turkish ambassador. Your diamond aigrette with its rotating star, another gift (they call it a chelengk) from the Grand Signior in Constantinople.
