It would be unseemly for me to beg for your succour so early in this letter, and so I shall divert you {or so I flatter myself} by relating my last conversation with my employer, Peter Romanov, or Peter the Great, as he is now styled-not without perfectly sound reasons-by many {I say "employer" because he owes-I do not say "pays"-me a stipend to act as his advisor on certain matters; my Mistress and liege-lady remains, as always, Sophie}. As
( Neal Stephenson )
[ The System of the World ]
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