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28 June 1905 — Ca’ Capello, Venice | |
Wednesday. 28th [June 1905]. Breakfast at 7 & then as is my wont in the summer season, read Dante for an hour. Ola came at 10 & sat & talked. At 12.15 I went off in gondola to the Palace. Received as usual by Marchesa Villamarina, Princess S. Elia & Countess Trivulzio a young & rather shy lady who wore the diamond monogram of Q. Elena I think. The Q. Mother has put off her trip to Ravenna on account of the cyclones & storms wh have devastated all that region within the last few days. The Q. took my arm to go into lunch and I sat next her & to Marchesa di Villamarina. The Q. was enthusiastic about the success of Count Schio’s great success with his aerial machine with which he had twice made an ascension & had found it a perfect success. She is going to Vicenza on purpose to see it & to go up in it—tho’ only when it was held by cords. The conversation went on in a lively manner—everybody with their neighbour; H.M. referred to her visit to the Cos: Hospital & praised it. She asked if the nurses, were ladies of good family &c. She spoke of the 2 German patients & said she had not liked their expression & thought, from their faces, that they might be socialists. I told her that Ola found them troublesome & unpleasant to deal with & corroborated her judgment. She said she liked the expression of the English sailor who had a pleasant expression. Marchesa Villamarina spoke of the Browning Palace & the unfortunate division between the owners of it– I assured her Mrs B. was neurasthenic—& that lone was the cause of the trouble. We spoke of the unhappy state of Russia & the weakness of the Czar who as soon as he had made a promise, had it explained away by his Govt. I compared him to the Kaiser William who did much the same & his Govt had often to do the same– The Marchesa pointed to the Queen as a sort of warning to beware what I said of the man who was such a friend of H.M. I made the Queen go into a fit of laughter over an account of my sister Constance, having when a girl insisted upon driving an engine, made us all jump & bump by having by her inexperience sent off the machine too suddenly. She asked why C. drove the engine & when I said it was because she liked to try to do everything H.M. said “I understand that. I would like to do the same.” After lunch she took my arm & we went to the drawing room overlooking the gardens. H.M. smoked a cigarette & we sat there & talked on every sort of subject, flowers, books &c. A little after 2 H.M. dismissed us & retired to her room—saying as she took leave of me—then I hope to see you at Stupinigi later on. I went from here to the Hotel Victoria to see the Bss Reinelt and found that as the weather was threatening Css Papadopoli’s project of taking us to the Lido in her steam launch had been given up. I went home– At 6 o’cl the Bss Reinelt called for me in gondola to go for a row, but it came on to rain hard so we had to turn back and we paid old Baroness Ritter a visit at the Grand Hotel. She is a dear old Austrian lady with charming manners & quite grande dame. It rained the rest of the evening. I had to stay at home & play patience. | |
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