A tattling tabloid reported, around 1890, that
out of gratitude and curiosity 'Velvet' Veen traveled once - and only once - to
the nearest floramor with his entire family - and it is also said that Guillaume
de Monparnasse indignantly rejected an offer from Hollywood to base a screenplay
on that dignified and hilarious excursion. Mere rumours, no doubt. (Ada, 2.3)
'Velvet' Veen is a nephew and heir of David van Veen, a
wealthy architect of Flemish extraction who built one hundred floramors in
memory of his grandson Eric Veen, the author of an essay 'Villa Venus: an
Organized Dream'. Eric Veen's project "derived from reading too many erotic
works found in a furnished house his grandfather had bought near Vence from
Count Tolstoy, a Russian or Pole".
In Merezhkovski's "Peter and Alexey" (Book Six "Tsarevich on
the Run", chapter III) Pyotr Andreich Tolstoy is described as "velvet"
(barkhatnyi):
Это был всё тот же изящный и превосходительный
господин тайный советник и кавалер, Пётр Андреевич Толстой: чёрные бархатные
брови, мягкий бархатный взгляд, ласковая бархатная улыбка, вкрадчивый бархатный
голос – бархатный весь, а жальце есть.
("black velvet eyebrows, gentle velvet look, affectionate
velvet smile, bland velvet voice - velvet all, but has a sting so
small")
It is Venus (impersonated by Alexey's mistress
Evfrosinia) who helps Tolstoy to lure back home Prince Alexey:
Ну, конечно, кроме св. Николы, помогла и
богиня Венус, которую он тоже чтил усердно: не постыдила-таки, вывезла
матушка! (ibid., chapter VII)
Alexey Sklyarenko