s in ordinary places I might be able to stand him well
enough, as well as most women stand their husbands. Speaking of men who
aren't exactly right reminds me of Jimmy Payne. He is here. He seems to
have a sort of instinct to tell him when one is about to drive up to a
hotel, and then he stations himself in the door, expecting the blessing
which is for those who stand and wait. We made a sensation driving down
the narrow Corso at the fashionable hour, and Jimmy got some of the
credit of it when he stepped forward to welcome us. He had heard me say
that we would stop here, because I'd been told it was the only hotel in
Rome with a garden, and was close to the Pincian; and Jimmy has such a
way of remembering things you say, if he thinks it's to his advantage.
His first appearance was slightly marred, however, by a sneeze which,
like Lady Macbeth's etcetera spot, would "out" at the precise moment of
shaking hands. He says he got influenza from the Duchessa di
Something-or-Other, upon whom he was obliged to call the instant he
arrived, or she would never have forgiven him; so of course it's not
quite so hard to bear as common, second-class influenza. It appears that
he was so anxious to see "dear Lady Brighthelmston before she could get
away" that he shed his automobile at Genoa, and hurried on by train,
though whether on receipt of a telegraphic bidding from her ladyship or
not I don't know. Anyway, she didn't wait for him, or else the influenza
frightened her; for she has gone, and apparently without leaving word
for poor disconsolate Jimmy. She was at his hotel, and left word with
the manager that she would wire when she was settled in "some place
where there was a _little_ sunshine" for her letters to be forwarded. He
is waiting till that wire arrives.

Jimmy is "thick as thieves" with Aunt Mary, but as frigid as a whole
iceberg to poor Brown, if they happen to run across each other. I do
think, don't you, Dad, that it shows shocking bad breeding to be nasty
to a person who, from the very nature of the case, can't answer back?
When I hear people speaking rudely to servants I always set them down as
cads. Imagine marrying a man and then finding out that he was a cad! One
ought to be able to get a divorce. The weather has, I suppose, been
terrible since we came to Rome; at least, I hear everyone in our hotel
grumbling, and certainly gardens haven't been of much use to us. But I
am in a mood not to mind weather. I am in Rom