"Yes; but where shall we go?" asked Leonora.
"I had thought of a charming place," said Julius. "It is away in the Piedmontese Alps—all mountains and chestnut woods and waterfalls. An old convent built over a torrent. Only the people from Turin go there."
"That sounds cool," said Leonora, fanning herself, though whatever she might suffer from the heat she never looked hot. "Let us go. When were you there?"
"Years and years ago," said Julius. "I used to catch trout with caddis-worms, and write articles about Italian politics. You may imagine how much I knew of what was going on, shut up in an old convent in the mountains. But it made no difference. Writing about Italian politics is very like fishing with worms."
"Why?"
"You sit on a bank with a red, white, and green float to your line. You have not the least idea what is going on under the water. Now and then the float dips a little, and then you write that the national sentiment of honour is disturbed. That is a bite. By and by the float disappears and your line is pulled tight, and you think you have got a fine fish. Then you write that a revolution is imminent, and you haul up the line cautiously, and find that a wretched little roach or a stickleback has swallowed your hook. The red, white, and green float waves over your head like a flag while you get the hook out and bait it again. You make another cast, and you write home that order has been restored. On the other side of the bank sits another fellow, with a float painted red, white, and blue. He is the French correspondent. Sometimes you get his fish, and sometimes he gets yours. It is very lively."
"You used to say that a simile was an explanation and not an argument," said Leonora, rather amused at his description. She always remembered what he said, and enjoyed quoting him against himself.
"So it is. What I told you was an illustration of a correspondent's life, not an argument against the existence of very fine fish in the stream."
"You are too quick," said Leonora, laughing.
"One has to be quick in order not to appear too awfully slow in comparison with you, dear," answered Julius at once.