Much to Mary's dismay, Ernest fell in love with the 18-year-old countess. "Mary noticed that Ernest and Adriana "were busily launching a flirtation," but she said little about it, believing an affair with the young woman was unlikely—because she thought that Adriana would not fall in love with the much older Ernest."
Ernest's infatuation with Adriana hurt Mary, and she worried that his whole-hearted and naïve pursuit of the young woman would lead to embarrassment all around. "Ernest was weaving a mesh which might entangle and pain him," Mary wrote. "But I was sure that no cautionary phrases of mine could arrest the process. I held my tongue."
Hemingway's Widow, p. 152
Adriana's Selphie using a mirror.