“Never! He allows no visitors inside it.”
“Ah, I expect you’re too inquisitive!” and she looked at him with a bland and compassionate tolerance. “You see, being a woman, I don’t care about difficult studies, such as astronomy. Women are not supposed to understand the sciences,—they never can grasp anything in the way of mathematics, can they?”
Farnese hesitated.
Chauvet interposed quickly.
“They can,—but to my mind they cease to be women when they do. They become indifferent to the softer emotions——”
“What emotions?” queried Diana, unfurling a little fan and waving it slowly to and fro.
“The emotions of love,—of tenderness,—of passion——”
“Ah, yes! You mean the emotions of love, of tenderness, of passion—for what? For man? Well, of course!—the most surface knowledge of mathematics would soon put an end to that sort of thing!”
“Dear English madame, you are pleased to be severe!” said Chauvet. “Yet the soft emotions are surely ‘woman’s distinguishing charm’?”
She laughed.