all wrought in service to the contemporary style that critics liked to describe as “lithe” or “sleek” or that most slippery of adjectives, “modern.” Isolde had always found the aesthetic impersonal and sterile. While her home could absorb clutter with aplomb, contemporary decor would be entirely spoiled by the presence of a dropped scarf or abandoned saucer. Its beauty relied upon its emptiness, and so followed its soul.
