It was quite hot after lunch. Norina had arranged more interviews, but the Romans were easy-going and arrived late.
Baba told Norina, "As they are not on time, I will not see them."
Norina, however, entreated Baba to excuse them and he saw a few persons.
Anita had requested a certain reproduction of a painting from Rome, and Baba went to buy it for her with Kitty and Minta. They all then drove to the train station in taxis, but the drivers demanded exorbitant fares. Tino and a policeman who was standing nearby warned Baba and the group not to pay. A more reasonable amount was agreed upon and they left Rome by train, reaching Santa Margherita at 11:45 that night.
Baba seemed not to like Rome and was happy to be back near the sea. However, no one was at the station to meet them and Baba expressed his disappointment about that. They had to hire cars to return to their villa, and had to carry all the luggage themselves. In an ill mood and very tired, Baba went straight to his room.
Quentin had a dear friend named Ruano Bogislav . Ruano, 57, had been an opera singer, actress and businesswoman.1 She was living in Paris, and when Quentin returned to England from India in June, he stopped in Paris to tell Ruano about Meher Baba.
Right at that time, two friends were visiting Ruano from New York, Mrs. Henry Bell Gayley, called Nonny , and her daughter Madeleine, called Rano . At dinner, Quentin told all three women about Baba.
As Rano listened politely to Quentin's fantastic narrative, she thought: "Tod is saying all this in exuberance. There cannot be much truth in it."
Then Quentin gave them a photograph of Baba. When Nonny saw it, she was thrilled. She cried out, "That's the man!" Rano asked what she meant. Nonny replied that, one day in May of 1932, she had been glancing through The New York Times when she noticed a picture of a man with long hair. She felt compelled to meet him. This was the same man — Meher Baba.
Rano's heart, too, was gradually smitten by Baba's countenance; it was the photograph of her Lord, which her heart recognized even as her mind rebelled.
Footnotes
- 1.Ruano Bogislav was a stage name. Her real name was Elfrida Klamroth. Ruano had once been married to Ricardo Martin, a well-known tenor of New York's Metropolitan Opera Company.