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19 November 1899 — Trent | |
Sunday. 19th November [1899]. After the nine oclock breakfast the Empress took me to sit with her in her dressing room. I gave her a russian fine knitted white wool shawl & begged her as a favour to me to keep it by her bedside & to put it on if ever she should feel cold in the night. It is so light & warm at the same time. She promised me she would do so & I told her I should like to think it would be on her bed wherever she went. She said smiling sadly that I spoilt her (as if anything I could give her were good eno’ for her). She read me some of the telegrams from S. Africa in the Times & then I read it aloud to her while she made a drawing out of the window. We talked of the work now being done for the sick & wounded in the war & she regretted that such people as Lady Randolph Churchill should be taking such a prominent part in the American Red Cross ship & that people of deceitful character such as she & Lady Warwick should use philanthropy as a means of keeping their names before the public. She said she had consulted the D. of Devonshire as to whether she should support Lady Warwick’s Charities & had said that he advised her to do so as the objects were good altho’ the promoter of them was not what one could wish. She said that she had promised the Duke of Portland thro’ Ola Du Cane to open the Children’s hospital at Nottingham but now that her health is so bad she does not know what her plans may be & that she will ask the Duchess of York to do it for her. She told me that our Queen is going to stay at Bordighera this spring & that she herself will be there to meet her & advised me to go there at the same time. I answered that I should never venture to go there alone—& she said “Oh no, of course, but you must come to me.” Just as I was leaving she again reminded me of this & said she would write to me about it. Count Seckendorff asked me if I would not go to Lerici to see H.M. after the New Year & I said I could so on my way to Paris in Jany if H.M. wishes & so I hope I may see her again before very long. The luncheon was put on ¼ hour that I might lunch before I left & I had to leave directly after lunch & went across the Piazza Dante to the station to go by 1.36 train. B. & Bss Salvadori met me & accompanied me as far as the next station. I changed trains at Verona & got to Venice at 7 P.M. It was a splendid moonlit night & I was glad to get home– I found a good many letters. One from the secy of the Red Cross saying there was so much work being done for the sick & wounded that he advised us not to make anything here. | |
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