“Have you no fireplaces at home?”
“Sai; those Neapolitan fireplaces that are not meant for fire, a cardboard sort of affair. Besides, my servant never manages to make me comfortable. I shiver in my own room, although it is so thickly carpeted.”
“Do you light fires at home, Galimberti?”
“No, Signorina; indeed, I have no fireplace.”
“How can you study in the cold?”
“I don’t feel the cold when I study.”
“You, Alberto, when you have anything to do, bring it here. I will embroider, and you can work.”
“I never have any writing to do, Lucia. You know your father manages all my business. And writing is bad for my chest.”
“You could read.”
“Reading bores me; there’s nothing but rubbish in books.”