Chapter 3
THE HOUSE "OVER THE WATER"The Mediterranean Squadron, that magnificent display of naval
force that is the guarantee of peace in Europe, after a week of gay
festivities in Leghorn, had sailed for Gaeta, while I, glad to
escape from the glaring heat, found myself back once more in dear
old London.
One passes one's time in the south well enough in winter, but
after a year even the most ardent lover of Italy longs to return to
his own people, be it ever for so brief a space. Exile for a whole
year in any continental town is exile indeed; therefore, although I
lived in Italy for choice, I, like so many other Englishmen, always
managed to spend a month or two in summer in our temperate if much
maligned climate.
London, the same dear, dusty old London, only perhaps more dea
