September 5 Saturday – Fairhaven, Mass: Sam’s notebook: “Sailed at dawn. / Arrived at Fairhaven early in the afternoon, 8 1/4 hours out / Billiards” [NB 46 TS 23].
George Gregory Smith wrote to Sam of the difficulties faced in trying to lease the Villa Papiniano from the Barlow “girls,” who he described as “impossible” to deal with and as “undigested old maids.” Smith had gone so far as to notify his lawyer to prepare a lease for the Papiniano, which was given for signature to the Misses Barlow’s agent, and agreed to forward one half of the lease amount as insisted upon. He then wrote:
Imagine my disgust on being coolly told that the Misses Barlow were afraid that you were bringing a whole cargo of contagious diseases into the Villa, besides children enough to stock an orphan asylum, and that under any conditions she would only let Papiniano for 6 months from the 1st of November, and for the sum of 4,500 lire. Her agent washed his hands of the whole business and turned me over to deal directly with the Misses Barlow…
Smith then suggested two other possibilities: the Villas Miravalle and La Luna [Orth 35-6].