Caesar or Nothing Part 47

"Susanna's friend consulted her book, and the result was that we found we were in the Vale of Egeria.

"From there we came out by a narrow road running along a wall, not a very high one, over which green laurel branches projected. We saw an obelisk at the end of the road, and the entablature of Saint John the Lateran. The group of statues, reddish brown, silhouetted against the sky, made a very strange effect.

"We started to go down by the Via di San Sisto Vecchio, which also runs along by a wall. At the bottom of the slope there is a mill, with a deep race. Susanna's friend said she would enjoy bathing there.

"We came out, at nightfall, almost opposite the Baths of Caracalla.

"'They ought to knock these ruins down altogether,' I said.

"'Why so?' asked Susanna.

"'Because they appear to be standing here to demonstrate the uselessness of human energy.' Susanna was very little interested as to whether human energy is useful or useless.

"I am, because my own energy forms a part of human energy, and for no other reason.

"We came back past the Forum, but today we did not come upon any funerals. To demand that somebody should die every day and his corpse be carried out at twilight to feed tourists' emotions, would, I think, be demanding too much.

"When we reached her hotel, Susanna let her friend go up first; and as soon as we were alone, she looked at me expressively, placing one hand on her breast, and said to me, in nasal Spanish:

"_'Mi corazon arde en mucha llama.'_

"I don't believe it."

XXIV. TOURIST INTERLUDE

TRAVELLING

"Susanna said to me: 'I have some inclination for you, but I don't know you well enough. If you feel the same way, come with me. Let us travel together? I am with her, and nevertheless I am convinced that what I am doing is a piece of stupidity.

"We spent this Sunday morning in the train. In the country we saw men at work with great oxen that had long twisted horns. In a swampy field some labourers were draining the ground with great effort. From the train we saw the island of Elba, and Capraia, and the sea as blue as indigo.

"_'Mare nostro,'_ said an elegant gentleman in a fluty voice, and pointed out something on the horizon which he said was Corsica, and he said that it can be seen from far away.

"While all we useless, unoccupied persons gathered in the dining-car, the people in the fields kept on working, bent over in the mud, draining the marshes.

"'What a lot of effort those poor devils have to make to keep us alive.'

I said.

"'We are not kept alive by them,' retorted Susanna.

"'No, we live off of other slaves, who work for us,' I answered her.

'Those out there serve to feed the officers, the effeminate priestlings, all the people that take part in the theatrical performance of the Vatican. Those unfortunates help to uphold the eight basilicas and the three hundred odd churches of Rome.'

"Susanna shrugged her shoulders and smiled."

CLOSE TO

"Travelling with a woman one does not love, no matter how very pretty she is, produces a series of disenchantments. It seems as if one kept seeking defects and a.n.a.lysing them under the microscope. During these days that I have been accompanying Susanna, I have discovered a lot of physical and moral imperfections in her. There are moments in which she cannot conceal an egoism and brutality which are truly disagreeable; and besides, she is tyrannical, vain, and tries always to have her own way.

"We have been at Siena, which is a kind of Toledo, made up of narrow lanes. It was very hot. We were bored, especially she who has no artistic feeling.

"We have spent two days in Florence, a night in Bologna, another night at Milan, and after vacillating as to whether it would be better to go to Lake Como or to Switzerland, we have come to Geneva to spend a few days.

"Travelling like this in limited trains, one finds travelling more insipid than in any other fashion. All the sleeping-cars are alike, all the people alike, all the hotels alike. Really it is Stupid.

"It is still more stupid travelling with a woman who attracts attention wherever she goes. She attracts attention, that is all; she doesn't awaken any liking. She cannot comprehend why, being a beautiful and distinguished woman, she has n.o.body who cares for her disinterestedly.

She notices that all the smart young men who aim for her are simply coming to the beautiful rich woman.

"And she thinks they ought to be in ecstasies over her wit and over the repertory of ready-made phrases she keeps for conversation."

A TIRESOME HOTEL.

"In this immense, luxurious hotel, situated two thousand odd metres above sea-level, as the announcement-cards stuck everywhere say, more than a hundred of us gather in the dining-room at lunch-time. The greatest coolness, the most frozen composure reigns among us.

"It is obvious that, thus harboured and united by chance in this hotel, we disturb one another; a wall of prejudices and conventionalities separates us. The English old maids read their romantic novels; the German families talk among themselves; some Russian or other drinks champagne while he stares with vague and inexpressive eyes; and some swarthy man from a sultry country appears to be crushed by the lugubrious silence.

"Through the windows one can see Lake Leman, closed in near here by mountains, blue like a great turquoise, ploughed by white, triangular sails. From time to time one hears the strident noise of a steamboat's siren and the murmur of the funicular train."

A MODEST FAMILY

"To this ostentatious hotel a family of modest air came two days ago.

It was a family made up of five persons; two ladies, one of them plain, thin, spectacled, the other plumper and short; a merry girl, smiling and rosy, and a melancholy little girl, with a waxen face. They were accompanied by a man with a distinguished, weary manner.

"They are all in mourning. They are English; they treat one another with an attractive affability. The short lady, mother of the two girls, was pressing the man's hand and caressing it, during lunch the first day. He kept smiling in a gentle, tired way. No doubt he was unable to stay here long, for he did not appear that evening, and the four females were alone in the dining-room.

"The two ladies and the fresh, blooming girl are much preoccupied about the pale little girl, so much so that they do not notice the interest they arouse among the guests. All the old 'misses,' loaded with jewels, watch the family in mourning, as if they were wondering: 'How come they here, if their position is not so good as ours? How dare they mix among us, not being in our cla.s.s?'

"And it is a fact; they cannot be; there is something that shows that this family is not rich. Besides, and this is extraordinary enough, it seems that they haven't come here to look down on others, or to give themselves airs, but to take walks and to look at the immaculate peaks of Mont Blanc. So one sees the two girls going out into the country without making an elaborate toilet, carrying a book or an orange in their hands, and coming back with bunches of flowers...."

_TRAGEDY IN A HOTEL ROOM_

"This morning at lunch only one of the ladies appeared in the dining-room.

"'Perhaps the others have gone off on some picnic,' thought I.

"In the evening at dinner, the tall woman with the gla.s.ses and the larger of the two girls were at table. They didn't eat, and disquietude was painted on their faces; the girl had flushed cheeks and swollen eyes.

"'What can be happening to them?' I asked myself.

"At that juncture, in came the short lady, with two vials of medicine in her hand, and put them on the table. By what I could hear of the conversation, she had just come from Lausanne, where she had gone for the doctor. The melancholy little girl, the one with the waxen face, must be ill.

"No doubt the family have come to Switzerland for the sake of the child, who is probably delicate, and have made a sacrifice to do so. That explains their modest air, and the rapid departure of the man who brought them.