And in one of the best bits of comedy in the book, Caroline realizes that she doesn't really cherish the privacy that Mrs. Fisher succumbs to the attention being paid, realizing she actually quite enjoys having Mrs. Arbuthnot comes along more slowly, but realizes that her judgmentalism has driven away her spouse. Indeed, she has developed a kind of ability to see what their futures hold and is certain they will be made happy. She showers everyone with love and tries to convince them that they too will experience a rebirth in their newfound "heaven". Wilkins is the first of the women to be transformed by the Italian sun. Though previously unknown to each other, they are all intrigued by the ad and band together to defray the cost. And Lady Caroline feels smothered by the attention her beauty brings. Thomas Carlyle is more central to her life than any living being and she takes it out on all and sundry. Fisher leans heavily on her walking stick but even more heavily on the impossibility of modern life measuring up to the pleasures of her father's salon, which was peopled by all the great authors of the Victorian Era. Mrs Arbuthnot drowns herself in charitable church work, to compensate for her guilt that her husband makes a living writing biographies of history's great mistresses. Wilkins is constantly overborn by her ambitious husband. Two are married women whose marriages have lost their spark, one an elderly widow and one a great beauty who everyone pampers.
So reads the ad that sends four Englishwomen on a month-long vacation to an Italian villa (maybe in Portofino, where the author had stayed?). Small Mediaeval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be Let Furnished for the Month of April. "To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine.
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