“Yes, they’re humbugging.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“I do.”
“Have you any knowledge of human nature?”
“Oh, no, none at all!”
“I’m getting it, gradually. I believe that Rome can be dangerous and that an hotel-keeping marchesa, a prince and a Jesuit....”
“What about them?”
“Can be dangerous, if not to your sisters, because they have no money, but at any rate to Urania Hope.”
“I don’t believe it for a moment. It was all chaff. And it doesn’t interest me. What do you think of Praxiteles’ Eros? I think it the most divine statue that I ever saw. Oh, the Eros, the Eros! That is love, the real love, the predestined, fatal love, begging forgiveness for the suffering which it causes.”
“Have you ever been in love?”