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23 December 1891 — Ca’ Capello, Venice | |
Wednesday. 23rd [December 1891]. Painted at my portrait & at last began to get the mouth right. I have done it about 20 times & thought I never should do it. Henry & I went out in the afternoon in gondola & walked in Piazza where the band was playing– I went to call on Baroness von Oesterreicher & found her at home– There was with her Mme Pandolfi & others calling. Henry went straight home. I went on to call on Countess Marcello at 5 & she also was in—so I got home a little late & found Mr Woods & Mr Fischer were already there & we began to fix curtains &c in order to arrange our Christmas entertainment which is to be a Metamorphosis line with a sheet of glass with an arrangement of lights by which you turn a visible person into another who is merely reflected– They worked till dinner time & promised to return tomorrow at 3. Capt Finzi came to tea also Mr & Mme Castellani & they stayed a long time. We dined at– I read aloud to Henry before dinner & in the evening Ola & I played guitar & mandola duetts. Weather still splendid but very fine. We are all very much excited at a case daily reported in the papers– A Jewelry robbery. Some pearls belonging to a Mrs Hargreaves having disappeared & were found in the hands of a jeweller Spinks. He identifies Miss Ethel Elliot as the Lady who sold him the pearls—& says he gave her a cheque for £550 which she changed at Glyn’s bank. The bank clerks also identify her—& she is a cousin of Mrs Hargreaves. She denies it and brings an action for libel against Mrs Hargreaves urged thereto by her brother & her fiancé Capt Osborne the latter being so convinced of her innocence in the meanwhile marries her– The trial takes place & then is the endless cross examination out of wh Mrs Osborne comes very well. Capt. Hargreaves less well & ones suspicion is directed against him—or even against his friend Mrs Englehart whom Mrs Osborne insinuates is too intimate with Mrs Hargreaves– Today’s paper from England says the case has taken a still more curious turn– A tailor in Bond St writes to say a lady came to him with £550 pieces of gold in a bag & ask him to get her change in bank notes which he did—the nos: of the notes will have been kept & the mystery solved. | |
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