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reasons why she hated Florence and wished to end her days
in the shadow of Saint Peter’s. They are reasons, however,
that do not closely concern us, and were usually summed
up in the declaration that Rome, in short, was the Eternal
City and that Florence was simply a pretty little place like
any other. The Countess apparently needed to connect the
idea of eternity with her amusements. She was convinced
that society was infinitely more interesting in Rome, where
you met celebrities all winter at evening parties. At Florence
there were no celebrities; none at least that one had heard
of. Since her brother’s marriage her impatience had greatly
increased; she was so sure his wife had a more brilliant life
than herself. She was not so intellectual as Isabel, but she
was intellectual enough to do justice to Rome-not to the ru-
ins and the catacombs, not even perhaps to the monuments
and museums, the church ceremonies and the scenery; but
certainly to all the rest. She heard a great deal about her
sister-in-law and knew perfectly that Isabel was having
a beautiful time. She had indeed seen it for herself on the
only occasion on which she had enjoyed the hospitality of
Palazzo Roccanera. She had spent a week there during the
first winter of her brother’s marriage, but she had not been
encouraged to renew this satisfaction. Osmond didn’t want
her-that she was perfectly aware of; but she would have gone
all the same, for after all she didn’t care two straws about
Osmond. It was her husband who wouldn’t let her, and the
money question was always a trouble. Isabel had been very
nice; the Countess, who had liked her sister-in-law from
the first, had not been blinded by envy to Isabel’s personal

634 The Portrait of a Lady