I’m not familiar with Edith Wharton’s work, but I found this story to be a pleasant surprise.

Two American women meet in Rome after many years. Alida Slade has the stronger personality of the two, while Grace Ansley is less assertive and inclined to do what others suggest.

The opposite is the case with their two daughters, Jenny Slade is not brilliant but a “perfect” daughter, whereas Grace’s daughter, Barbara, seems to be more enterprising and goes after what she wants.

Jenny was pretty but had none of her mother’s “vividness”.

Grace is less articulate than Alida and more conventional. She sits knitting while Alida doesn’t.

As regards Roman fever, it is apparently both a sort of pneumonia and the disposition to do the sort of things that apparently Grace did long ago.

We are told about the events that took place the last time the two were together in Rome. They were both in love with Delphin Slade whom Alida later marries. Alida, jealous of Grace, sends her a note purporting to come from Delphin, and asking her to meet him at the Colosseum at a certain date and time. She wants Grace to wait in vain for him there. But in actual fact Grace contacts him and it turns out he came and they met.

There is a wonderful twist at the end of the story and we get the answer to why Grace’s daughter, Barbara, is so much more brilliant than the two parents.

The unkind Alida wanted to play a trick on Grace and have her wait alone for hours in the cold Colosseum, but Grace reveals the truth of what happened at the end of the story, and it was not to Alida’s advantage.

P.S. Grace did get pneumonia (Roman fever) that night, but recovered. And the other sort of Roman fever was her meeting with Alida’s fiancé, Delphin. Both women are widows at the time of the second meeting. ( )