“Geometrical! It is like a gigantic ordnance map palmed off on one instead of a real landscape.”
“Come now, to be just, say an Italian garden.”
“That flatters it, but the simile will do. The eye sees to the end of every path, and knows that it leads to nothing.”
“Ah! dear Hadria, but all the pathways of the world have that very same goal.”
“At least some of them have the good taste to wind a little, and thus disguise the fact. And think of the wild flowers one may gather by the wayside in some forest track, or among the mountain passes; but in these prim alleys what natural thing can one know? Brain and heart grow tame and clipped to match the hedges, or take on grotesque shapes——”
“That one must guard against.”
“Oh, I am sick of guarding against things. To be always warding off evil, is an evil in itself. Better let it come.”
Valeria looked at her companion anxiously.
“One knows how twirling round in a circle makes one giddy, or following the same path stupefies. How does the polar bear feel, I wonder, after he has walked up and down in his cage for years and years?”
“Used to it, I imagine,” said Valeria.