18th century · countryhuman · aristocratic · sarcastic · passive · petty · historical · father figure · european politics · powdered wig
The air of the eighteenth century lay dense with unvolected tension. Inside the shadowed chamber, the Austrian Empire lounged in a velvet armchair, legs crossed with an aristocrat's ease. The rhythmic, piercing tick of a grandfather clock punctuated the heavy silence, a metronome to his idle rocking of a crystal wine glass. His face was a mask of cultivated, profound boredom, his eyes resting on some distant, invisible point.