human
Attractive? Heavens! no.
gpt
Yet you stay here? I think I have seen you here, at intervals, for something like seven years?
human
Don't count them; I hate the sound, said Mrs. Roscoe.
gpt
My wish is--my hope is--to live in Paris. I get there once in a while, and then I always have to give it up and come away. Italy is cheap, and Pisa is the cheapest place in Italy.
human
So that is your reason for remaining,
gpt
What other reason on earth _could_ there be?
human
The equable climate.
gpt
I hate equable climates. No, we're not here for climates. Nor for Benozzo; nor for Nicolo the Pisan, and that everlasting old sarcophagus that they are always talking about; nor for the Leaning Tower, either. I perfectly hate the Leaning Tower!
human
It is for the moderns, then. You are evidently a Shelley worshipper.
gpt
Do I look like one?
human
I cannot say that you do, replied Miss Spring, after surveying her.
gpt
I should think New York would please you as a place of residence, she went on, after a moment.
human
If you do not like Italy, why do you not go home?
gpt
Why don't you?
human
Well answered. But Newburyport is not to me what I should think New York might be to you; Newburyport has much to learn. However, we all have our reasons, I suppose.
gpt
Mine are not mysterious, said Violet, continuing to crunch.
human
I have a better time abroad than I do at home; that's all.
gpt
I may as well acknowledge that it was those very things that brought me here in the beginning, the things you don't care for; Nicolo and the revival of sculpture; the early masters. But I have not found them satisfying. I have tried to care for that sarcophagus; but the truth is that I remain perfectly cold before it. And the Campo Santo frescos seem to me out of drawing. As to the Shelley memories, do you know what I thought of the other day? Suppose that Shelley and Byron were residing here at this moment-- Shelley with that queerness about his first wife hanging over him, and Byron living as we know he lived in the Toscanelli palace--do you think that these ladies in the pension who now sketch the Toscanelli and sketch Shelley's windows, who go to Lerici and rave over Casa Magni, who make pilgrimages to the very spot on the beach where Byron and Trelawny built the funeral pyre--do you think that a single one of them would call, if it were to-day, upon Mary Shelley? Or like to have Shelley and Byron dropping in here for afternoon tea, with the chance of meeting the curates?
human
If they met them, they couldn't out-talk them, answered Violet, laughing.
gpt
Curates always want to explain something they said the day before. As to the calling and the tea, what would _you_ do?
human
I should be consistent, responded Miss Spring, with dignity.
gpt
I should call. And I should be happy to see them here in return.
human
Well, you'd be safe, said Violet.
gpt
Shelley, Byron, Trelawny, all together, would never dare to flirt with Roberta Spring!
human
History?
gpt
Yes, 'm. I haven't got very far yet,
human
Reader. Copy-book. Geography. Spelling-book. Arithmetic, said Miss Spring, turning the books over one by one.
gpt
The Arithmetic appears to be the cleanest.
human
Disuse, said Mrs. Roscoe, from her easy-chair.
gpt
As I am Maso's teacher, and as I hate arithmetic, we have never gone very far. I don't know what we shall do when we get to fractions!
human
And what is your dog doing on the table, may I ask?
gpt
Oh, he helps lots. I couldn't study at all without him,
human
Indeed? said Miss Spring, turning the gaze of her glasses from the dog to his master.
gpt
How's that?
human
If you won't tell, Maso, I shall, said his mother;
gpt
I shall do it to make you ashamed of your baby ways. He divides each lesson, Miss Spring, into four parts, if you please; then, as each part is learned (or supposed to be learned), Mr. Tiber has to sit on his hind legs and wave a paw. Then, when all four parts are done, Mr. Tiber has to lie on the book. Book after book is added to the pile, and finally Mr. Tiber is on top of a monument. But he is so used to it that he does not mind it much. After the last lesson is learned, then Mr. Tiber, as a celebration, has to go through all the tricks. And there are twenty-two.
human
Well! said Miss Spring. She never could comprehend what she called
gpt
of the Roscoes. And their dog language (they had one) routed her completely.
human
Twenty-two!
gpt
An' _gherry_ kinnin, idn't they?
human
Why did you name him Mr. Tiber?
gpt
We didn't; he was already named, explained Mrs. Roscoe.
human
We bought him of an old lady in Rome, who had three; she had named them after Italian rivers: Mr. Arno, Mr. Tiber, and Miss Dora Riparia.
gpt
Miss Dora Riparia--well! said Miss Spring. Then she turned to subjects more within her comprehension.
human
It is a pity I am going away, Maso, for I could have taught you arithmetic; I like to teach arithmetic.
gpt
Thank you, 'm,
human
I shall get a tutor for Maso before long, remarked Mrs. Roscoe, as Miss Spring came back to the fire.
gpt
Later, my idea is to have him go to Oxford.