THE EMPRESS, my mother, studied me as if I were an un-usual creature she‘d thought of acquiring for the palacemenagerie. I shivered under her critical gaze. It was like be-ing bathed in snow.
"Still rather small, but I suppose she‘ll grow. Her sis-ters did," my mother said half to herself. She caught myeye. "No bosom yet, Antonia?"
I shook my head and stared down at my naked toes,
pale as slugs. "No, Mama."
Swathed in widow‘s black, the empress frowned atme as if my flat chest were my own fault. "She‘s no beauty,
certainly," she said, speaking to my governess, CountessBrandeis. "But pretty enough, I think, to marry the dauphinof France." She signaled me to turn around, which I did,