As may be imagined, I had no difficulty in convincing him that I have a whole-hearted admiration for the Italian Army after what I had seen of its wonderful doings at Gorizia and elsewhere.
It was then that he gave me the news of the declaration of war between Italy and Germany; the morning papers had not published it in the early editions.
“That will please them in England,” he remarked with a laugh. I agreed with him that it would, although it had long been expected.
The mention of England reminded me that he had just returned from the war conference in London, so I asked if he had ever been there before.
“Yes,” he replied with a humorous twinkle in his eye, “forty years ago; but I do not remember much of it; although my father was ambassador to England I only lived with him in London for a short while. It is, of course, much changed since then.”
Whilst thus chatting I was working with feverish haste at my sketch.
I now noticed he was getting a bit impatient at keeping the same position, so I suggested a few moments rest. He came over to see how I had got on, and asked if he might look through my sketch book.
It happened to be the one I had used at Gorizia, and the sketches I had made that day pleased him very much.
“You were fortunate, you were able to see something; I never see anything,” he remarked quite pathetically.
I felt there was no time to lose if I wanted to get finished in the half-hour, so hinted at his resuming the pose for a few minutes longer. He did so at once, and I ventured to tell him in a joking way that he would make a capital model.