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28 January 1894 — Naples | |
Sunday. 28th [January 1894]. I went to the English church at Via S. Pasquale to 11 o’cl service. Yesterday about 5 P.M. we had a visit from H.M. Consul here Capt Hartwell. A pleasant man. Told us he had been 25 years in the Navy & then 10 years head of the Police Force in Jamaica. He sat just before me in church—& I thought to myself this is the only person here whom I know. To my surprise coming out of church I discovered that Mrs Browning was there & we came out together & walked together in the Chiara gardens & there she began to pour out her griefs to me—& to tell me all the story of her differences with her husband. How he had brought the Florentine Ginevra into the house—for a few days only—how gradually he had made her head of the house. How Fanny had had scenes of jealousy & finally how Mr B. had refused to let the girl go—& had written Fanny a very unkind letter which decided her to refuse to live with him any longer. She is evidently madly jealous & perhaps with reason. I am loathe to believe that Mr B could be such a blackguard as to bring his mistress to live under the same roof as his own wife—but such things have happened before. Fannie got very excited while telling me all this & I had to lead her to a side walk & get her to sit down to quiet her. She said she was on her way to Cairo to meet her sister & to stay for a change. She arrived here yesterday & slept at the West End Hotel & sails in the P&O today at 3. So she had to tell me all at once– I got in to lunch late—Henry wondering what had become of me. Don Carlo d’Adda & Margharita came to see us after which we went for a walk down the gardens & back by the seawall. Had tea– Read aloud to Henry– Dined at 7. Patience. I received a letter today from Ola who went to stay with the Ross’ at Florence on Friday. She tells me of the tragic end of Miss Fennimore Woolson at Venice. How she has committed suicide by throwing herself out of her bedroom window in the street. Cini was attending her & she had Miss Holas to stay with her by day & a nun by night. One night abt 12 she asked for milk. The nun offered it her in a glass. She said she wished for it in another glass in wh she had flowers in the next room—the nun went to fetch it & on her return the patient was gone, the window open—& the poor thing was found in the street with broken spine & thigh & died in an hour. She had asked Cini to give her a narcotic that morng & to inject morphine in the afternoon both of wh he had refused to do. When I saw [her] last week she had told me that she had occasion to remake her will & had told Cini that he must not let her die till she had done so or else she wd “haunt him haunt him by day & by night.” I told her to make her will in her own hand & sign it without witnesses & that wd hold good in Italian law. She said “I will do so at once”—but Ola writes word that she made no will at all—poor thing. | |
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