"You are right. You are always right."
"Finally, you must agree that it is better to be reasonable than to be sentimental; better to be arid than to be rhetorical, better to be silent than to speak out everything that is in one's heart; better to be strong than to be weak. Am I not right?"
"You are right, always right."
"Anna, do you know what life is?"
"No, I don't know what it really is."
"Life is a thing which is serious and absurd at the same time."
She made no answer; she was silent and pensive.
"It is serious because it is the only thing we know anything about; because every man and every woman, in whatever rank or condition, is bound to be honest, well-behaved, worthy and proper; because if one is rich and noble it is one's duty to be moral in a given way; if one is poor and humble, it is one's duty to be moral in another way."
He saw that she was listening to him eagerly; he saw that he might hazard a great stroke.
"Giustino Morelli——" he began softly.