All the music from the Quirinal seems to have been transported here, and Vera knows exactly where to put his hand upon everything as it is needed.  There is a new edition of Marcello’s psalms which are very amusing to dechiffrer.  Sometimes the Queen takes the soprano part, at others she takes the contralto.

At three o’clock the Queen went to her apartment, and I took that occasion to pay some visits to the other ladies in their different salons.  We met in the grande salle for tea.  M. and Mme. Minghetti arrived from Milan by the same train we came on Monday, and came straight from the carriage into the salon.  The Queen seemed enchanted to see them.  They are charming people.  He is as delightful as he is unpretentious, which is rare in a man so celebrated as he is, and she has lost none of her fascinations, although she is a grandmother.  They brought the last news from Rome, and the conversation was on politics and war; they talked so rapidly that neither my brain nor my Italian could keep pace with them.  I might have told you something of interest if I had been able to understand what they said.

At seven o’clock there was a military dinner.  As there were about sixty people present, the dinner was served in the large dining room.  The King and the gentlemen of the household were, as usual, in redingotes and black ties, but the generals and the officers were in all their war-paint, most gorgeous to behold.  I sat on the left of the King (Madame Minghetti was on his right), and next to the dearest old general in the world, who was politeness itself, and, though I suppose we shall never see each other again, he gave himself much trouble to entertain me.  He told me that he had been with the King when he fought in the battle of Custozza (in the Austrian war), where the King had shown so much bravery and courage.  The King, hearing what my neighbor was saying (he probably raised his voice a trifle), leaned across me, and, laughingly holding up a warning finger, said: 

“If you go on like that I shall leave the table.”

“Oh, your Majesty! that would never do,” said my general.  “Now, madame,” turning to me, “shall we talk of the weather?”

After dinner there was le cercle.  Their Majesties went about and talked to everybody.  The King seemed in the best of spirits, laughing continually, and familiarly clapping the officer to whom he was talking on the back.  Every one stayed in the salon until it was time for the military guests to take their leave.

November 5, 1884.

Dear ——­,—­This morning I received a little word from the Marquise Villamarina:  “Please put on a warm dress, as her Majesty intends taking a long drive after luncheon, and it will be chilly and damp before we get back.”

We came into the salon just in time not to be too late, for their Majesties entered almost immediately.