"Let the pasture furnish its own atmosphere. And you had something about a certain breed of cattle near Rome—Rome, was it?"
"Roman Campagna. Travel reminiscences."
"Travel is a mistake," declared Abner.
"So it is," broke in Clytie. "Squat on your own door-step, as Emerson says."
"Does he?—I think not," interposed Giles the elder. "What he does say is——"
"We all know," interrupted Stephen, "and ignore the counsel."
Abner did not know, but he would not stoop to ask. "And there was a quotation from one of those old authors,—Theocritus?"
"Theocritus, yes. Historical perspective."
"Leave the past alone. Live in the present. The past,—bury it, forget it."
"So hard. Heir of the ages, you know. Good deal harder to forget than never to have learned at all. That's easy," jibed Bond, with a touch of temper.