[ Bell / Abroad with the Jimmies ]
The "Jimmies" of the title are a married couple who, along with the narrator and her sister, travel through Europe at the turn of the 20th Century. This novel was first published in 1902 (L. C. Page, Boston); the text is taken from that edition.
The novel's only mention of Newfoundlands, purely incidental, occurs during a meeting with the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910).
There is no use in denying the truth. Tolstoy is always the teacher and the author. I could not imagine him the husband and the father. . . .
His wife evidently does not share his own opinion of himself. She listened with obvious impatience to the conversation, then she drew Bee and Mrs. Jimmie aside, and they were soon in the midst of an animated discussion of the Rue de la Paix. Tolstoy overheard snatches of their talk without a sign of disapproval. I have seen a big Newfoundland watch the graceful antics of a kitten with the same air of indifference with which Tolstoy regarded his wife's humanity and naturalness. Tolstoy takes himself with profound seriousness, but, in spite of his influence on Russia and the outside world, the great teacher has been unable to cure his wife's interest in millinery. (244 - 45)