THE KING, ESCORTED BY BUCHANAN, BROFFERIO AND ELLIOTT, VISITS AMERICAN VILLAGE 440 MESSINA. PAINTING THE AMERICAN COTTAGES 440 CHURCH OF SANTA CROCE, AMERICAN VILLAGE, MESSINA 441 HOTEL IN CONSTRUCTION, AMERICAN VILLAGE, MESSINA 464 ENCLOSING GANG AT WORK 464 GRAND HOTEL REGINA ELENA FROM THE RAILROAD 465 VIEW FROM THE HOTEL, AMERICAN VILLAGE, MESSINA 465 GRAND HOTEL REGINA ELENA AND CHURCH OF SANTA CROCE 480 * * * * * MAP OF SICILY 1 [Illustration: MAP OF SICILY] Sicily in Shadow and in Sun I MESSINA DESTROYED Monday evening, December 28th, 1908, four friends were dining together in a luxurious Roman villa. The hostess, Vera, sat opposite me at the head of her table with Lombardi, the Milanese mathematician on one side, and Athol, an Englishman, the representative of a great English newspaper, on the other. It was our first meeting that season. Vera, who had passed the summer at home in Russia, had just returned to Rome; I had arrived three days before on Christmas evening. We were all really glad to see one another, eager to hear the other’s news and to give our own. The dinner was a triumph! Attilio, the Neapolitan chef, had outdone himself; the pheasant in aspic was an inspiration, though the dish may have been prepared from a receipt known to the cook of Lucullus. Whatever decline other arts may show, the culinary art of Rome has lost nothing since the days of the famous banquets in the gardens of Sallust. Vera’s table was laid with the robin’s-egg Sevres service, the Copenhagen glass with its gilt borders, and the gold plate that had belonged to Cardinal Antonelli. In the middle stood an exquisitely wrought silver partridge, Vera’s own work, modelled and hammered out of silver by that strong small hand, the speaking hand of the artist, that now sparkled with jewels as she raised her glass of Orvieto and drank to our next meeting. After dinner we drew our chairs round the library fire where the tiny Roman Yule logs blazed cheerily on the hearth. It was extraordinarily cold for Rome; the thick fur of the great white polar bear skin before the fire was comforting to our chilled feet. Outside on the terrace a dog bayed. “Open the door and let Romulus in,” said Vera. “It’s very wrong of course--a watch-dog ought to sleep in his little cold house--but I haven’t the heart to leave even a dog out on such a night.”