Saturday, July 13, 2013

Saturday commute lxxxiv: Delights of the choppy crossing


  Poor Elsa Maxwell: she had a nasty
  tumble towards the end of her en-
  terprising career. The world under-
  stood (through innumerable photo-
  graphs in the glossies) that she
  had a close relationship with the
  Windsors over several years, but
  then there came a tiff and the
  swishing aside of skirts. A recon-
  ciliation was brought about in mid-
  Atlantic during very bad weather.
  The Duchess invited her to a cock-
  tail party in the Windsor state-
  room. On arrival Maxwell attempted
  a deep curtsy, which unfortunately
  coincided with a roll of the ship.
  Maxwell tumbled over, clutching at
  the Windsor legs, which took errat-
  ic steps sideways. The cries of
  Wallis! Elsa! were muffled in the
  sound of crashing glass.





I take this reminiscence for 
the wise counsel that it is, 
against the folly of a rap-
prochement in relationships 
which have served their mu-
tually exploitive purposes. 
But this is early evening, 
and there's always room for 
an expedient exception to a 
rule, not to mention oppor-
tunity for new accident. Who
could incline to wither in
this perspective, just now? 



















Alec Guinness
A Positively
  Final Appearance:
  A Journal, 1996-98
Penguin, 1999©