I

The Piazza of Trinità de' Monti takes its name from a church and convent

which stand on the edge of the Pincian Hill.

A flight of travertine steps, twisted and curved to mask the height,

goes down from the church to a diagonal piazza, the Piazza di Spagna,

which is always bright with the roses of flower-sellers, who build their

stalls around a fountain.

At the top of these steps there stands a house, four-square to all

winds, and looking every way over Rome. The sun rises and sets on it,

the odour of the flowers comes up to it from the piazza, and the music

of the band comes down to it from the Pincio. Donna Roma occupied two

floors of this house. One floor, the lower one, built on arches and

entered from the side of the city, was used as a studio, the other was

as a private apartment.

Donna Roma's home consisted of ten or twelve rooms on the second floor,

opening chiefly out of a central drawing-room, which was furnished in

red and yellow damask, papered with velvet wall-papers, and lighted by

lamps of Venetian glass representing lilies in rose-colour and violet.

Her bedroom, which looked to the Quirinal, was like the nest of a bird

in its pale-blue satin, with its blue silk counterpane and its

embroidered cushion at the foot of the bed; and her boudoir, which

looked to the Vatican, was full of vases of malachite and the skins of

wild animals, and had a bronze clock on the chimney-piece set in a

statue of Mephistopheles. The only other occupant of her house, besides

her servants, was a distant kinswoman, called her aunt, and known to

familiars as the Countess Betsy; but in the studio below, which was

connected with the living rooms by a circular staircase, and hung round

with masks, busts, and weapons, there was Bruno Rocco, her

marble-pointer, the friend and housemate of David Rossi.

On the morning after Donna Roma's visit to the Piazza Navona a letter

came from the Baron. He was sending Felice to be her servant. "The man

is a treasure and sees nothing," he wrote. And he added in a footnote:

"Don't look at the newspapers this morning, my child; and if any of them

send to you say nothing."

But Roma had scarcely finished her coffee and roll when a lady

journalist was announced. It was Lena, the rival of Olga both in

literature and love.

"I'm 'Penelope,'" she said. "'Penelope' of the Day, you know. Come to

see if you have anything to say in answer to the Deputy Rossi's speech

yesterday. Our editor is anxious to give you every opportunity; and if

you would like to reply through me to Olga's shameful libels.... Haven't

you seen her article? Here it is. Disgraceful insinuations. No lady

could allow them to pass unnoticed."




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