hrough a place where there is a wall with arches, under
which some beggars have built huts out of gasoline cans. There is an
eating-place thereabouts called the Osteria di Porta Metronia.

"Susanna's friend consulted her book, and the result was that we found
we were in the Vale of Egeria.

"From there we came out by a narrow road running along a wall, not a
very high one, over which green laurel branches projected. We saw an
obelisk at the end of the road, and the entablature of Saint John the
Lateran. The group of statues, reddish brown, silhouetted against the
sky, made a very strange effect.

"We started to go down by the Via di San Sisto Vecchio, which also runs
along by a wall. At the bottom of the slope there is a mill, with a deep
race. Susanna's friend said she would enjoy bathing there.

"We came out, at nightfall, almost opposite the Baths of Caracalla.

"'They ought to knock these ruins down altogether,' I said.

"'Why so?' asked Susanna.

"'Because they appear to be standing here to demonstrate the uselessness
of human energy.' Susanna was very little interested as to whether
human energy is useful or useless.

"I am, because my own energy forms a part of human energy, and for no
other reason.

"We came back past the Forum, but today we did not come upon any
funerals. To demand that somebody should die every day and his corpse be
carried out at twilight to feed tourists' emotions, would, I think, be
demanding too much.

"When we reached her hotel, Susanna let her friend go up first; and as
soon as we were alone, she looked at me expressively, placing one hand
on her breast, and said to me, in nasal Spanish:

"_'Mi corazon arde en mucha llama.'_

"I don't believe it."

XXIV. TOURIST INTERLUDE

TRAVELLING

"Susanna said to me: 'I have some inclination for you, but I don't know
you well enough. If you feel the same way, come with me. Let us travel
together? I am with her, and nevertheless I am convinced that what I am
doing is a piece of stupidity.

"We spent this Sunday morning in the train. In the country we saw men at
work with great oxen that had long twisted horns. In a swampy field some
labourers were draining the ground with great effort. From the train we
saw the island of Elba, and Capraia, and the sea as blue as indigo.

"_'Mare nostro,'_ said an elegant gentleman in a fluty voice, and
pointed out something on the horizon which he said was Corsica, and he
said that it ca