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25 May 1902 — Paris | |
Sunday. 25th [May 1902]. Kate & I went off to church in the Rue d’Aguesseau & came out before the sermon & went off to 26 Rue Hamelin to lunch with Mme Taine. Met there her daughter & son in law with their little boy of 4—also a Mr Dubois & his nephew Mr who has just returned from India & has written a book on A. Mme Taines daughter Mme Dubois has married since she & her mother were at Venice in 1894. We saw them several times then & had engaged ourselves to dine with Mme Taine on our way to England having even fixed the day & hour when Henry’s sudden & fatal illness caused us to come off to London at a moment’s notice & cancel this engagement. Mme Dubois speaks English very well & Mme Taine speaks less fluently. The hotel in wh she lives was built by herself in what she calls the English style large room with marble pillars at one end & large bay window & the ornaments a great many of them Tunisian. Mme T. told us her son has settled at Tunis & she goes to stay with him in the winter & there picked up tiles & oriental things for her Paris house. On leaving Mme Taine we returned to our hotel to meet Vere Ponsonby & together we drove in a fiacre to La Muette & then on thro’ the Bois de Boulogne the chateau of Baron E. de Rothschild. The Bois was full of people, the flowers lovely—the fresh green & the chestnuts in flower—all made a gay scene. The chateau at Boulogne was a handsome building with a lovely garden– The family were walking on it & we joined them there. B & Bss Edmond, their son James, the daughter, Miriam & the grandmother Bss Willy who has a villa near Frankfurt. I had visited her there with the Empress Frederick whilst I was staying at Friedrichshof. Our hosts took us to see the Japanese garden—not to me an attractive thing—poor stunted little trees never allowed to grow naturally. These people keep a Japanese gardener. We were led back to tea chatting as we went– Bss Edmond is a kindly fat little woman very like her cousins in England Lady Battersea & Mrs Eliot Yorke– After tea the young people wandered away under the strict surveillance of a governess & we elders sat in the garden. B. Edmond is a spare man the type of the arab—with a keen eye– At abt 6.30 we took our leave but the Bss very kindly offered to drive me back in her carriage & so Kate & Vere went in the fiacre. It was a lovely evening & we are suddenly in full summer. The Elysées was crammed with vehicles—many being automobiles—which are worked by petroleum & leave a horrible smell behind them as they go. They also go an alarming pace & make street traffic rather dangerous. Vere came & dined with us & gave Kate a lesson in crochetting a woolen shawl. | |
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