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14 April 1899 — Ca’ Capello, Venice | |
Friday. 14th [April 1899]. Pouring wet day. I went out in gondola & called on Mlle de Bunsen & had a long talk with her. We talked about morals & art & beauty & I had to fight the old battle against the notion that so long as art was fine—the moral part is a secondary thing. I can understand it. It appears to me that anything not entirely good is not entirely beautiful—but by all the showing of those who ought to know I am wrong—or is it the tendency & degeneracy of the age that sees things in the way people now see them? It depresses me. I came home to lunch & afterwards went out with Lady Vivian to shop & buy flower glasses & flowers & candle shades for this evening’s dinner & then we came in & arranged the dinner table for the dinner for the Empress Frederick I had to meet her Count & Css Brandolin, The Sindaco (Ct Grimani), Herr Passini which with Lady Vivian, Her Majesty, Mme Fabre du Laure, Fraulein de Bunsen, Herr Wedel & Count Seckendorff made our number 11. H.M. arrived soon after 8 & I begged the Sindaco to lead her to table—& I sat opposite to her. My young cook gave us an excellent dinner & all went off very well. H.M. was very lively. She had Grimani on her right, Passini on her left. She stayed till about ¼ to 11. My maid Knapp took off & put on her galoshes for her & she very kindly shook hands with her. This is the first time she has dined here without Henry & she & I both felt it. She said she seemed to think she must hear his voice. | |
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