Directly he set foot in a country which was not
his own he felt stimulated. He felt that he woke up, that his mind became
more alert, his imagination more lively. He delighted in change, in being
brought into contact with a society which required study to be
understood. His present fate contented him well enough. He liked Rome and
was liked there. As his mother was a Roman he had many Italian
connections, and he was far more at ease with Romans than with the
average London man. His father and mother lived almost perpetually in
large hotels. The former, who was enormously rich, was a /malade
imaginaire/. He invariably spoke of his quite normal health as if it were
some deadly disease, and always treated himself, and insisted on being
treated, as if he were an exceptionally distinguished invalid. In the
course of years his friends had learned to take his view of the matter,
and he was at this time almost universally spoken of as "that poor Sir
Henry Pierce whose life has been one long martyrdom." Poor Sir Henry was
fortunate in the possession of a wife who really was a martyr--to him.
Nobody had ever discovered whether Lady Pierce knew, or did not know,
that her husband was quite as well as most people. There are many women
with such secrets. Robin's parents were at present taking baths and
drinking waters in Germany. They were later going for an "after cure" to
Switzerland, and then to Italy to "keep warm" during the autumn.
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