He forbade the artifice of vanity in any way, shape, or form, and no
color was to be added to her face. She must not pluck her
eyebrows--which were not that heavy anyway.
That she should only wear black was an agreeable but meaningless edict
to Si'Wren at first, but she was beginning to understand. One must keep
an unflinching eye to the practical business of court. Many unlettered
buyers went to market to look upon the wares of the merchants like so
many red-eyed judges, and they drove exceeding hard bargains. Such
covetous types were everywhere, with a true talent for the sneer kept
ever just below the surface of their gladdest smiles. Such sneers could
be her undoing, Court Officer or no.
Without such unthinking respect on the part of others, how could she
effectively conduct herself, how pursue her royal duties, if held in
perpetual scorn by palace peers and the public? Without the unthinking
esteem of the crowds, the common masses of peoples who thronged daily
to the Emperor's court, how could Si'Wren face up to such coarse souls
as would just as soon laugh in her face and make sport of her meager
person?
It was one thing for the whores to mock a laughing soldier by parading
around half-naked in his armor. No one took them seriously, and the
soldiers enjoyed it.
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