en them to do after a certain
model, they will conform perfectly for the first three or four times;
then their fatal creativeness comes into play, and they begin to better
their instruction by trying to improve upon the patterns--that is, they
are artists, not artisans. They must please their fancy in their work or
they cannot do it well. From my own experience I cannot say whether this
is generally or only sometimes true, but I can affirm that where they
delayed or erred in their work they took their failure very amiably. I
never saw sweeter patience than that of the Roman matron who had
undertaken a small job of getting spots out of a garment, and who quite
surpassed me in self-control when she announced, day after appointed
day, that the work was not done yet or not done perfectly; she was
politeness itself.

On the other hand, some young ladies at a fashionable concert which the
queen-mother honored with her presence did not seem very polite. They
kept on their immense hats, as women still do in all public places on
the European continent, and they seized as many chairs as they could for
friends who did not come, and at supreme moments they stood up on their
chairs and spoiled such poor chance of seeing the queen-mother as the
stranger might have had. While the good King Umberto lived the stranger
would have had many other chances, for it is said that the queen showed
herself with him to the people at the windows of their palace every
afternoon; but in her widowhood she lives retired, though now and then
her carriage may be seen passing through the streets, with four special
policemen on bicycles following it. These waited about the doorway of
the concert-hall that afternoon and formed a very simple, if effective,
guard. In fact, it might be said that in its relations with the popular
life the reigning family could hardly be simpler. The present king and
queen are not so much seen in public as King Umberto and Queen
Margherita were, but it is known from many words and deeds that King
Victor Emmanuel wishes to be the friend, if not the acquaintance, of his
people. When it was proposed to push the present tunnel, with its walks
and drives and trolley-lines, under the Quirinal Palace and gardens, so
as to connect the two principal business quarters of the city, the king
was notified that the noise and jar of the traffic in it might interfere
with his comfort. He asked if the tunnel would be for the general
advantage, a