Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

he could order hers at once, and don’t forget to tell Raoul the same. She did think the whole Leffingwell thing was going to be exciting, and what attitude should she take officially if she happened to meet somebody she knew when she and Celestine went to the UN for lunch with the heads of the British and French delegations?
    “Don’t take any attitude,” Claude Maudulayne said. “Let them guess. That’s what I’m doing.”
    “Is that what you’re really doing?” Lady Maudulayne wanted to know.
    “That’s what I’m really doing,” her husband replied.
    “Oh,” she said thoughtfully. “Then I will too. It will be difficult though, don’t you think? He is so controversial, and everybody knows we will all be affected by his appointment, won’t we?”
    “I expect so,” Lord Maudulayne said. “By all means be as blank as the sphinx if you see K.K.”
    “Pooh to K.K.,” said Lady Maudulayne in a tone that left no doubt of her feelings about the Indian Ambassador. “That tiresome—”
    “Ah, ah,” Claude Maudulayne said reprovingly. “Ah, ah. Ties that bind, you know. Little brown brethren, dinner jackets in the jungle, we all went to Oxford and spent our hols together, and so on. The Commonwealth forever. One big, happy family, right?”
    “One big happy my foot,” Kitty Maudulayne said crisply. “Sometimes I think this whole thing is—”
    “—is the best of a bad bargain and a bad bargain is all we can get in this happy era,” her husband said with equal crispness, “so please don’t say anything revolutionary to anybody.”
    “I’ll try not to,” Kitty promised. “Will you have a car meet us at the airport?”
    “I think I can,” Lord Maudulayne said. “Have a good time at the UN.”
    “I will,” his wife said. “Don’t forget to call Raoul.”
    “Immediately,” Lord Maudulayne said.
    And, as good as his word, which was generally recognized in Washington to be very good indeed, he put the call through as soon as Kitty hung up. After a couple of minutes with secretaries he achieved his objective and heard the pleasantly accented voice of the French Ambassador brighten with pleasure.
    “My dear Claude!” it said. “To what do I owe this always happy event?”
    “To wives,” Lord Maudulayne said.
    “Ah, those charming little ladies,” Raoul Barre said fondly. “What have they done now, gotten themselves arrested for vagrancy in New York?”
    Lord Maudulayne laughed.
    “Nothing as drastic as that, old chap,” he said. “Kitty was just on, and she wants to be very sure that I know, and you know, that she and Celestine want orchids for Dolly Harrison’s party tonight.”
    “Ah, is that all,” the French Ambassador said. “I was afraid it was something much more desperate and costly than that.”
    “She also wanted to know,” Lord Maudulayne said, “what she should say to people who asked her what she thought about the Leffingwell nomination.”
    “Oh?” said Raoul Barre carefully.
    “Yes,” his colleague replied.
    “And you said—?” Raoul suggested.
    “Nothing,” Lord Maudulayne said quickly. “I was blank as the Sphinx.”
    “I see,” the French Ambassador observed.
    “You do?” the British Ambassador asked.
    “When did the Sphinx become British?” Raoul inquired.
    “A temporary adherence,” Lord Maudulayne said airily. “I’m sure I’ll be as voluble as anything presently, but right now, no.”
    “No?” said Raoul Barre in a disappointed tone. “My dear Claude, I find myself in the same predicament as the lovely Kitty. What am I to tell people who ask me, if I cannot get guidance from the one who holds my poor country’s hand and makes sure she proceeds in the paths of righteousness?”
    “Hmm,” Lord Maudulayne said. “I wonder if we deserve that?”
    “On occasion,” the French Ambassador said. “On occasion, as you well know, clever Albion. Actually, you will be glad to know that I, too, am sphinxlike. Not that anyone has asked me