Italian letters of a diplomat's wife, January-May 1880, February-April, 1904 . than the Pope; said France and Italy,the two great Latin races, ought to be friends, and de-plored the extreme liberty of the press; knew also thatW. was in Rome for the first time, and hoped he wouldhave fine weather. He did not ask him anything abouthis interview with the Pope. W. said the reception wasquite simple—nothing like the state and show of theVatican. There was a big porter at the door of the pal-ace, two or three servants on the stairs, and two officers,aides-de-camp, in the small salon opening into the
Italian letters of a diplomat's wife, January-May 1880, February-April, 1904 . than the Pope; said France and Italy,the two great Latin races, ought to be friends, and de-plored the extreme liberty of the press; knew also thatW. was in Rome for the first time, and hoped he wouldhave fine weather. He did not ask him anything abouthis interview with the Pope. W. said the reception wasquite simple—nothing like the state and show of theVatican. There was a big porter at the door of the pal-ace, two or three servants on the stairs, and two officers,aides-de-camp, in the small salon opening into the Kingscabinet. Soon after he came in we had visits—Hooker, Mon-signor English, a French priest, head of St. Louis desFrangais, and Del Monte, whom I hadnt yet seen. Hewas so nice and friendly—doesnt look really much older,though he says he feels so. I told him it seemed un-natural not to have a piano. He would have brought hiscello, and we could have plunged into music and quite for-gotten how many years had passed since we first playedand sang the Stella Kiiin Humbert of Italy. i88o] OF A DIPLOMATS WIFE 67 After they had all gone we started out to the TreFontane, taking Gert with us to see the establishmentof the French Trappists who are trying to assainir the Campagna by planting eucalyptus trees. It is an in-teresting experiment, but rather a dangerous one, as sev-eral of the fathers have died. The summer here, withthat deadly mist that rises from the Campagna, must befatal, and the two monks we saw looked yellow and shriv-elled with fever. However, they will persevere, withthat extraordinary tenacity and devotion of the Cath-olic priests when they undertake anything of that carried off a bottle of Elixir of Eucalpytus, for I amsorry to say these last bright days have given me anunpleasant souvenir in the shape of a cold chill every nowand then between the shoulders, and evidently there isstill truth in the Roman proverb Cuore di donna, ondedi mare,
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