human
She is very pretty. She has tons and tons of money. She could have gone to a first-class hotel but preferred to come here because, as a young girl travelling by herself, she was recommended to me and finds it pleasanter here. She has the big sitting-room to herself and pays fifty lire a day for her two rooms. She does not care about money. She pays three times as much as the others for her wood; and I also charge her for the wine.
gpt
She sells stockings,
human
Nonsense! said the marchesa.
gpt
Remember that there's nobody at the moment. Last winter we had rich English titled people, with a daughter, but you thought her too tall. You're always discovering some objection. You mustn't be so difficult.
human
I think those two little Dutch dolls attractive.
gpt
They have no money. You're always thinking what you have no business to think.
human
How much did Papa promise you if you....
gpt
I don't want so many stockings as all that.
human
No.
gpt
Sixty or seventy thousand: I don't know exactly.
human
Are they urgent?
gpt
Debts are never urgent!
human
Do you agree?
gpt
Very well. But mind, I won't sell myself for less than ten millions.... And then you get....
human
Urania?
gpt
Yes, Urania, replied la Belloni.
human
Those little Americans are very tactful. Look at the Comtesse de Castellane and the Duchess of Marlborough: how well they bear their husbands' honours! They cut an excellent figure. They are mentioned in every society column and always with respect.
gpt
Five.
human
No, ten.
gpt
I don't quite understand them, he said.
human
It's a joke, of course.
gpt
A joke, you think, Mr. van der Staal?
human
Yes, they're humbugging.
gpt
I don't believe it.
human
I do.
gpt
Have you any knowledge of human nature?
human
Oh, no, none at all!
gpt
I'm getting it, gradually. I believe that Rome can be dangerous and that an hotel-keeping marchesa, a prince and a Jesuit....
human
What about them?
gpt
Can be dangerous, if not to your sisters, because they have no money, but at any rate to Urania Hope.
human
I don't believe it for a moment. It was all chaff. And it doesn't interest me. What do you think of Praxiteles' Eros? I think it the most divine statue that I ever saw. Oh, the Eros, the Eros! That is love, the real love, the predestined, fatal love, begging forgiveness for the suffering which it causes.
gpt
Have you ever been in love?
human
No. I have no knowledge of human nature and I have never been in love. You are always so definite. Dreams are beautiful, statues are delightful and poetry is everything. The Eros expresses love completely. The love of the Eros is so beautiful! I could never love so beautifully as that.... No, it does not interest me to understand human nature; and a dream of Praxiteles, lingering in a mutilated marble torso, is nobler than anything that the world calls love.
gpt
Let us go to the dancers, she said.
human
We are so out of it all here.