“Prime Minister Count Vidot had two official offices. One was in his Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he led not only domestic but also foreign policy, and the other was in the palace. Here he conferred with His Majesty and made daily morning reports to him. The count's palace office was furnished far from being furnished with palace luxury. The upholstered furniture, the bronze, the curtains, the desk, the carpets—all this was stale, as if faded, faded, reminiscent of a huge salon of a first-class hotel, bathed in sun most of the day. It wasn't impressive. Neither palace, nor even ministerial in the great-power sense of the word...”