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Chapter 50

As the Countess Gemini was not acquainted with the an-
cient monuments Isabel occasionally offered to introduce
her to these interesting relics and to give their afternoon
drive an antiquarian aim. The Countess, who professed to
think her sister-in-law a prodigy of learning, never made
an objection, and gazed at masses of Roman brickwork as
patiently as if they had been mounds of modern drapery.
She had not the historic sense, though she had in some di-
rections the anecdotic, and as regards herself the apologetic,
but she was so delighted to be in Rome that she only desired
to float with the current. She would gladly have passed an
hour every day in the damp darkness of the Baths of Titus if
it had been a condition of her remaining at Palazzo Rocca-
nera. Isabel, however, was not a severe cicerone; she used to
visit the ruins chiefly because they offered an excuse for talk-
ing about other matters than the love-affairs of the ladies of
Florence, as to which her companion was never weary of of-
fering information. It must be added that during these visits
the Countess forbade herself every form of active research;
her preference was to sit in the carriage and exclaim that ev-
erything was most interesting. It was in this manner that she
had hitherto examined the Coliseum, to the infinite regret
of her niece, who-with all the respect that she owed her-
could not see why she should not descend from the vehicle

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