Part 4 (1/2)
”Ah, yes.”
Caesar kept on reading, and Laura continued to watch the landscape which hurried by outside the window. After a while she exclaimed:
”O Lord, what hideous things!”
”What things?”
”Those war-s.h.i.+ps.”
Caesar looked where his sister pointed. In a roadstead brilliant with sunlight he saw two men-of-war, black and full of cannons.
”That's the way one ought to be to face life, armed to the teeth,”
exclaimed Caesar.
”Why?” asked Laura.
”Because life is hard, and you have to be as hard as it is in order to win.”
”You don't consider yourself hard enough?”
”No.”
”Well, I think you are. You are like those rough, pointed rocks on the sh.o.r.e, and I am like the sea.... They throw me off and I come back.”
”That is because, perhaps, when you get down to it, nothing makes any real difference to you.”
”Oh, _bambino!_” exclaimed Laura, taking Caesar's hand with affectionate irony. ”You always have to be so cruel to your mamma.”
Caesar burst into laughter, and kept Laura's hand between both of his.
”The Englishman feels sad looking at us,” he said. ”He doesn't dream that I am your brother.”
”Open the door, I will tell him to come in.”
Caesar did so, and Laura invited the young Englishman to enter.
”My brother Caesar,” she said, introducing them, ”Archibaldo Marchmont.”
They both bowed, and Marchmont said to Laura in French:
”You are very cruel, Marchesa.”
”Why?”
”Because you run away from us people who admire and like you. My wife asked me to present her to you. Would you like her to come?”
”Oh, no! She mustn't disturb herself. I will go to her.”
”a.s.suredly not. One moment.”