And he lighted his pipe.

Vivian Bell exclaimed: 

“Oh, do not talk in that way, Monsieur Choulette.  You grieve me much, and if our friend Monsieur Gebhart heard you, he would not be pleased with you.  To punish you, Prince Albertinelli will read to you the canticle in which Beatrice explains the spots on the moon.  Take the Divine Comedy, Eusebio.  It is the white book which you see on the table.  Open it and read it.”

During the Prince’s reading, Dechartre, seated on the couch near Countess Martin, talked of Dante with enthusiasm as the best sculptor among the poets.  He recalled to Therese the painting they had seen together two days before, on the door of the Servi, a fresco almost obliterated, where one hardly divined the presence of the poet wearing a laurel wreath, Florence, and the seven circles.  This was enough to exalt the artist.  But she had distinguished nothing, she had not been moved.  And then she confessed that Dante did not attract her.  Dechartre, accustomed to her sharing all his ideas of art and poetry, felt astonishment and some discontent.  He said, aloud: 

“There are many grand and strong things which you do not feel.”

Miss Bell, lifting her head, asked what were these things that “darling” did not feel; and when she learned that it was the genius of Dante, she exclaimed, in mock anger: 

“Oh, do you not honor the father, the master worthy of all praise, the god?  I do not love you any more, darling.  I detest you.”

And, as a reproach to Choulette and to the Countess Martin, she recalled the piety of that citizen of Florence who took from the altar the candles that had been lighted in honor of Christ, and placed them before the bust of Dante.

The Prince resumed his interrupted reading.  Dechartre persisted in trying to make Therese admire what she did not know.  Certainly he would have easily sacrificed Dante and all the poets of the universe for her.  But near him, tranquil, and an object of desire, she irritated him, almost without his realizing it, by the charm of her laughing beauty.  He persisted in imposing on her his ideas, his artistic passions, even his fantasy, and his capriciousness.  He insisted in a low tone, in phrases concise and quarrelsome.  She said: 

“Oh, how violent you are!”

Then he bent to her ear, and in an ardent voice, which he tried to soften: 

“You must take me with my own soul!”

Therese felt a shiver of fear mingled with joy.

CHAPTER XIV

THE AVOWAL