Summary

In "All About Evelyn", Evelyn was twenty years old and traveling, without a chaperone, in early 1900s Florence. She stayed at the Pensione Simi and befriended a fellow guest, Miss Everly. At the small hotel, Evelyn was distracted by Livia, the maid. She thought about the other young woman when she and Miss Everly visited the museums and observed the nude statues. On her birthday, Livia volunteered to spear head the dinner menu and decoration and prepared a feast of rabbit and bedecked the table with violets. A “lustful note undeniably felt” between herself and Livia distracted Evelyn from participating in the evening’s conversations (410). Her thoughts of the maid were only briefly interrupted when another guest choked and spat his rabbit onto the portrait of Queen Victoria. When dinner was over, Evelyn stayed back in the dining room and thanked Livia...