Italian letters of a diplomat's wife, January-May 1880, February-April, 1904 . ssed on one side of the thrones(or arm-chairs). He talked to the ambassadors andetrangers de distinction (men—they say he rarely speaksto a woman). We all moved about a little after theQueen had passed, and I found plenty of old friendsand colleagues to talk to. Neither the Russian Ambas-sador, Prince Ourousoff, nor any of his staff were pres-ent, on account of the war. Tuesday it poured all the morning, so I didnt get myusual walk, and I tried to put some sort of order in ourcards, which are in a hopeless confusion
Italian letters of a diplomat's wife, January-May 1880, February-April, 1904 . ssed on one side of the thrones(or arm-chairs). He talked to the ambassadors andetrangers de distinction (men—they say he rarely speaksto a woman). We all moved about a little after theQueen had passed, and I found plenty of old friendsand colleagues to talk to. Neither the Russian Ambas-sador, Prince Ourousoff, nor any of his staff were pres-ent, on account of the war. Tuesday it poured all the morning, so I didnt get myusual walk, and I tried to put some sort of order in ourcards, which are in a hopeless confusion. The unfortu-nate porter is almost crazy. There are four of us here(as Madame de Bailleuls cards and invitations also comehere), all with different names, and it must be impossiblenot to mix them. It stopped raining in the afternoon and Josephine andI walked up to Palazzo Brancaccio after tea, to ask aboutBessie, who has been ill ever since her ball. The streetswere full of people, a few masks (as it was Mardi Gras),but quite in the lower classes. I should think the Car-. Victor Knuiiuicl III., Km-^ u{ Ii;ilv. I904] OF A DIPLOMATS WIFE 245 nival was dead, as far as Society is concerned. We gotvery little information about Bessie—the porter wouldnot let us go upstairs, said the Princess was in the coun-try, or perhaps in Paris. It seems he is quite a char-acter, well known in Rome. When Mr. Field was ill,dying, of course everybody went to inquire, which seemedto exasperate him, as he finally replied, ma si, e malato,va morire, ma lasciarlo in pace—perche venir seccar lagente? (yes, yes, he is ill, dying, but leave him in peace—why do you come and bore people?). We stepped in at a little church on our way back, wherea benediction was going on. It was brilliantly lighted,and filled with people almost all kneeling—princesses andpeasants—on the stone floor. It was a curious contrastto the motley, masquerading crowd just outside. Thursday, is still showery and th
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