The White House Gang Stories : About and Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt

		T.R.
.

Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States

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ADVENTURES OF THE WHITE HOUSE GANG

"Mimicking the Italian Consul General"

“Somewhere in these upper regions there was a skylight opening, through which we could look down into the main hall of the living quarters, on the second floor. I remember how, from this point of vantage, we once saw Mrs. Roosevelt sitting at a tea-table, directly under the skylight. Beside her sat an Italian diplomat, wearing his monocle, and balancing his teacup in his hand…
The Italian’s monocle convulsed us. Our own monocles, crystals from old watched, were promptly brought into service, and, thus adorned, we lined up along the edge of the skylight, to watch our diplomat and copy his gestures.
Quentin – softly at first – began to talk what he fondly imagined to be Italian. The syllables were too contagious for us to remain silent, and soon we were all gibbering away, louder and louder. “Quentin!”, called Mrs. Roosevelt, and four small boys, each with a glittering monocle in his eye, and suddenly, brought back to earth, stared down from the edge of the skylight.
The Italian opened his eyes in astonishment, and dropped his monocle into his tea!
We could not restrain a shout. The Italian threw back his head and laughed with us and said, “Mrs. Roosevelt, I beg of you to command those monkeys to come to tea, with those things in their eyes!”.
Later we watched him drive away, grinning to himself….”.