dreadful
jargon, which I do think so ugly and so vulgar, though you are all so
fond of it. I ought not to have come to Coombe-Bysset: at least, they
all said it was silly. Nessie Fitzgerald was back in London before the
week was out, and doing a play. To be sure, she was married in October,
and she didn't care a bit about him; and I suppose that made all the
difference. To me it seems so much more natural to shut one's self up,
and Piero thought so too; but I am half afraid he finds it a little dull
now. You see, we knew very little of one another. He came for a month of
the London season, and he met me at Ranelagh, and he danced the cotillon
with me at a good many houses, and we cared for one another in a week,
and were married in a month, as you know. Papa hated it because it
wasn't Burlington or Lord Hampshire. But he couldn't really object,
because the San Zenone are such a great Roman family, and all the
world knows them; and they are Spanish dukes as well as Italian
princes. And Piero is such a grand gentleman, and made quite superb
settlements,--much more, papa said, than he could have expected, so poor
as we are. But what I meant was, meeting like that in the rush of the
season, at balls, and dinners, and garden-parties, and luncheons at
Hurlingham, and being married to one another just before Ascot, we
really knew nothing at all of each other's tastes, or habits, or
character. And when, on the first morning at Coombe, we realized that we
were together for life, I think we both felt very odd. We adored one
another, but we didn't know what to talk about; we never had talked to
each other; we never had time. And I am afraid there is something of
this feeling with him. I am afraid he is dreadfully bored, and I told
him so, and he answered, "_Angelina mia_, your admirable countrymen are
not bored in the country because they are always eating. They eat a big
breakfast, they eat a big luncheon, they eat a big dinner, they are
always eating. Myself, I have not that resource. Give me a little coffee
and a little wine, and let me eat only once a day. You never told me I
was expected to absorb food like the crocodiles." What would he say if
he saw a hunting-breakfast in the shires? I suppose life _is_ very
material in England. I think it is why there is so much typhus fever. Do
you know, he wasn't going to dress for dinner because we were alone. As
if that was any reason! I told him it would look so odd to the servants
if