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any country in the world where I couldn't jolly the servants. You speak in French or German or pidgin Chinese or whatever it is, you can master a few words to indicate you're saying ‘Good morning' with gestures, and they'll smile and beam and usually say something. These Russian servants wouldn't say a word. Didn't open their mouths. They were perfectly silent. I tried every little trick could think of just to break the ice between us. They were very obsequious. They were competent, all right. They would take my clothes and brush them and press them, and bring water and tea. They would bring breakfast. It was all perfectly all right.”
I think he had his valet along with him, Arthur Prettyman --I think he had him along with him. They were all competent, but they were absolutely stony-faced. No smiles--not a smile on any servant's face. All of which, he said, made him feel rather peculiar, odd.
He had heard about, and had seen in the American Embassy, a pair of beautiful Persian vases of that beautiful blue color that's almost turquoise but not quite turquoise, a beautiful color, and had inquired about them and been told they were old and rare and what they were. They were very beautiful, and he wanted some. He was a great collector, you know, everywhere he went he wanted something to bring home in his pocket.
He tried to get somebody to go out to get it. Well, of course, that created great excitement, and there was nothing
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