“Well, isn't it?”
“No! This land isn't nature. It's waste. Not wilderness. It's the other end. Those hills were covered with forests; this was a busy civilized coast just a little thousand years ago. The Venetians wasted it. They cut down the forests; they filled the cities with a mixed mud of population, THAT stuff. Look at it”!—he indicated the sleepers forward by a movement of his head.
“I suppose they WERE rather feeble people,” said Amanda.
“Who?”
“The Venetians.”
“They were traders—and nothing more. Just as we are. And when they were rich they got splendid clothes and feasted and rested. Much as we do.”
Amanda surveyed him. “We don't rest.”
“We idle.”
“We are seeing things.”
“Don't be a humbug, Amanda. We are making love. Just as they did. And it has been—ripping. In Salona they made love tremendously. They did nothing else until the barbarians came over the mountains....”