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them properly. You know Anatolia. You know what it’s like. And you know Egypt.”
    He had a short, sharp recollection of his long centuries at the Temple of Imhotep; he said, “Not from the point of view of modern women’s clothing.”
    “You must tell me about it, one day,” she said, carefully putting hooks through eyes in the front of her jacket. “I hate to think what would have become of me if Madame de Montalia had not sent her recommendation to you.”
    “And entrusted her manuscript to you for delivery,” added Ragoczy. “I, too, am thankful to her.”
    “Sometimes I fear I have done her an ill turn.”
    “You have not,” he said.
    “I hope that’s so,” she said, then made a final adjustment to her collar. “There. I believe I am ready.”
    “And so, I presume, is your dinner,” he said, offering her his arm.
    “Before Uchtred becomes annoyed, permit me to take you down to the smaller dining room.”
    “And wish me bon appetite?” she ventured with a lift of her brows.
    He opened the bedroom door and bowed her out. “Of course, dear lady: bon appetite.”
    Text of a letter from Klasse van der Boom in Amsterdam, to Saint-Germain Ragoczy, Comte Franciscus at Château Ragoczy near Lake Geneva, Yvoire, Switzerland; delivery delayed five weeks on account of severe weather.
    To the most Excellent Saint-Germain Ragoczy, Comte Franciscus, the greeting of Klasse van der Boom, printer and publisher, Eclipse Press, in Amsterdam, on this, the eleventh day of March, 1817.
    My dear Comte,
    As you no doubt realize, I am sending you copies of our latest editions, as per the terms of our agreement of nine years ago.
    I think you will find that the diCaponieve has the best illustrations, and may prove the most rewarding of the six books in this package. Certainly for those traveling through the Alps, diCaponieve’s guide to roads, villages and towns, monasteries, inns, spas, hotels, and hostelries should prove invaluable. I have taken the step of ordering two thousand copies in Italian for the initial printing, and an additional eight hundred in French—an unusually high number, I realize, but one I believe will prove to be well-founded. I have approached many hoteliers along the routes diCaponieve describes, in the hope that the work will find readers with an immediate need of it.
    Kreutzerlinder’s book on the history of the Crusades through the exploration of ruins in the Ottoman Empire may not find as wide an audience, but anticipating an interest from universities, I have ordered twelve hundred copies of it. The illustrations in the volume are not as well-done as those in diCaponieve’s book, lacking in the fine detail and artistic presentation of the guide-book. But the text is informative and presented with concision, and will doubtless provoke lively discussion, given Kreutzerlinder’s theories on the role of the Byzantines in the conflict. I will be certain to approach German booksellers, to take advantage of the language in which it is written.
    Juencleu’s book on the French in Canada is not likely to find as broad a readership as either the Kreutzerlinder or the diCaponieve, and so I have ordered nine hundred copies of it, and will send letters to booksellers in Montreal in the hope that they will want to supply the work of one of their own to their clientele. I must confess I still have doubts about it, but I will, of course, abide by your instructions regarding its publication. It may be as you say, that the New World may eventually become as important as the Old.
    Donsky’s book on game- and song-birds of Russia is handsome, but I agree it is not a subject of avid interest here in western Europe. Fortunately there are many illustrations and all but two turned out well, a feature that could interest more readers than the topic can be expected to attract. At least it is in French and not Russian, for which I am grateful.
    The deMontalia text on Rhodes and Cyprus will also have a first edition