AC dBooks

Things I had been taught to think sacred were so often derided that I
had to ask myself if it could be Rome, my holy and beloved Rome--this
city of license and unbelief.
But Alma was entirely happy, especially when the talk turned on conjugal
fidelity, and the faithful husband was held up to ridicule. This
happened very often in one house we used to go to--that of a Countess of
ancient family who was said to have her husband and her lover at either
side of her when she sat down to dinner.
She was a large and handsome person of middle age, with a great mass of
fair hair, and she gave me the feeling that in her case the body of a
woman was inhabited by the soul of a man.
She christened me her little Irish _bambino_, meaning her child; and one
night in her drawing-room, after dinner, before the men had joined us,
she called me to her side on the couch, lit a cigarette, crossed her
legs, and gave us with startling candour her views of the marriage bond.
"What can you expect, you women?" she said.


Pages:
368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392