This particular summer afternoon, in a dusty geological library in Vienna, Sergeant Major von Rumpel follows an underweight secretary wearing brown shoes, brown stockings, a brown skirt, and a brown blouse through stacks of periodicals. The secretary sets down a stepstool, climbs, reaches. Tavernier’s 1676 Travels in India. P. S. Pallas’s 1793 Travels Through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire. Streeter’s 1898 Precious Stones and Gems. Rumor is that the führer is compiling a wish list of precious objects from all around Europe and Russia. They say he intends to remake the Austrian
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