kfast-table
talk is apt to be of the new excavations just taken from the bed of the
Tiber; the question as to whether the head of St. Paul could have
touched (at the tragic scene of his execution) at three places so far
apart as the tri-fontanes; or a discussion of the marvellous freshness
of the mosaics in the interior of the Palace of the Caesars; or, again,
of the last night's balls or dinners, and matters most frankly
_mondaine_, and of contemporary life.

The American Embassy, whose location depends on the individual choice of
the Ambassador of the time, is now in the old Palazzo del Drago on the
corner of the Via Venti Settembre and the Via delle Quattro Fontane. The
street floor, like all the old palaces, is not used for living purposes.
The portiere, the guards, the corridors, and approaches to the
staircases monopolize this space. The piano nobile is the residence of
the beautiful and lovely Principessa d'Antuni, the youthful widow of the
Principe who was himself a grandson of Marie Christine, the Queen of
Spain. The young Princess who was married to him at the age of
seventeen, ten years ago, is left with three little children, of whom
the only daughter bears the name of her great-grandmother, the Spanish
Queen. Perfectly at home in all the romance languages, an accomplished
musician, a thinker, a scholar, a student, a lovely figure in life, a
beautiful and sympathetic friend is the Princess d'Antuni. She is "of a
simplicity," as they say in Italy, investing the dignity of her rank
with indescribable grace and sweetness. The two long flights of stairs
that lead up to the secundo piano in the Palazzo del Drago--the floor
occupied by the American Embassy--have at least a hundred steps to each
staircase, yet so broad and easy of ascent as hardly to fatigue one.
These flights are carpeted in glowing red, while along the wall are
niches in each of which stands an old statue, making the ascent of the
guest seem a classic progress.

The Palazzo del Drago has an elevator, but elevator service in Rome is a
thing apart, something considered quite too good for human nature's
daily food, and the slight power is far too little to permit any number
of people to be accommodated, so on any ceremonial occasion the elevator
is closed and the guests walk up the two long flights. The total lack of
any mastery of mechanical conditions in Italy is very curious.

The grand ball given at the American Embassy just before Ash Wednesd