| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding the variable weather; visit of Beatrice, who is trying to leave her lazy husband and set herself up as a landlady near the station; attendance of Uncle and Amelia at a lecture on behalf of the Red Cross on 'Cold Light', but Uncle delayed them and they had bad seats; Queen Margherita was there; it included demonstrations of experiments but little concession was made to an unscientific audience and much of it seemed interesting but pointless; description of tubes of mercurial light and neon, 'a type of light unexplained as to composition or purpose'; effects of different lights on different coloured cloths; effects of mercurial light on minerals and its effect in art; the lecture must have been very costly, so she wonders how much money went to the Red Cross in the end; the Patriotic League is organising a garden party for Empire Day but the League is 'dying by degrees'; Aunt has had a tiring week and is unwell; Mrs. Cardinali is being very demanding; Aunt has had to be determined not to be forced to undertake all her care herself; she must delegate to others; Uncle has been busy with the affairs of Mrs. Warleigh; he has been helping her (previously Rachel Miller) with her passport as she passes through Rome to join her husband at Taranto; she complicated things needlessly by not explaining what she needed and by failing to reply to telegrams; the Gibsons' invitation to lunch: Mrs. Warleigh crushed Mr. Gibson to Amelia's satisfaction; their discussion of Miss Taylor, minister's daughter at San Remo; similar problems with jealousy amongst the communities in the north; Britain seems to have supplied two years' worth of coal to Italy before Italy joined the war, at pre-war prices; Italy sent it all through Switzerland to Germany and detained later British ships without allowing them to be unloaded; Uncle and Amelia visited an exhibition of photographs of the fronts with Mrs. Warleigh; she is a strain to have as a visitor but seemed to have been pleased with her treatment. |