– With Madame Josephine? I've heard about her. Listen, then I have a question. How, then, does Kshesinskaya endure Josephine next to her? After all, she certainly is not old and by no means a fearful person.
– Good question. Well, firstly, Zhozya is her close relative, whom she has known since childhood, and secondly, an effect is triggered, which is called “mirror nostalgia” in psychology.
– Don't be silly, explain plainly.
– Well, this is when a person already in old age is looking for his young likeness in someone else.
–Are you saying that Matilda sees herself in Josephine in her younger years?
– Well, sort of. And this is close to the truth. Josya really reminds her of those glorious years in everything, when the men of the imperial family, including the heir to the throne, swore love to her.
Dr. Marek politely let Robert go ahead.
The interior decoration of the house is quite consistent with its external appearance. Luxury was felt in everything: expensive floor carpets, golden stucco on the ceilings, artsy porcelain vases everywhere, figurines along the stairs, picturesque paintings on the walls – all this indicated that the hostess of the house was not in poverty at all, but, on the contrary, spared no expense to live in luxury and splendor.
From the second floor, down the stairs, Josephine herself descended to them – an elegantly dressed, well-groomed woman of about forty, with a penetrating look of a sly fox.
– Welcome, Robert! I heard a lot of flattering things about you and not only from Marek.
– Nice to hear about it, ma'am.
– You are a well-known person in wide journalistic circles both in America and in Europe. Robert Jackson Jr. is the successor to the work of his grandfather Robert Jackson Sr., a renowned journalist.
The three of them sat down on easy chairs by the fireplace, and the servants began to serve drinks and refreshments.
– I have prepared Matilda for today's conversation. Its main condition is no recording device. I mean the tape recorder, she hates it. God forbid you poke her in the face with a microphone.
– I wanted to involve my assistant for the record, but Marek was categorically against it.
Marek is right. Your young assistant would have affected her worse than a tape recorder with a microphone.