"Why not?"
"They don't interest me. I can't see the past in them. I merely see ruins."
"But then why did you come to Rome?" he asked, irritably.
She looked at him and could have burst into sobs:
"I don't know," she said, meekly. "I might just as well have gone somewhere else. But I had formed a great idea of Rome; and Rome disappoints me."
"How so?"
"I find it hard and inexorable and devoid of feeling. I don't know why, but that's the impression it makes upon me. And I am in a mood at present which somehow makes me want something less insensible and imperturbable."
He smiled:
"Come along," he said. "Come with me to the Palatine. I must show you Rome. It is so beautiful."
She felt too much depressed to remain alone; and she put on her things and left the hotel with him.