his reply that he repeated it twice
     That if we live the reason is that we hope
     That sort of cold charity which is called altruism
     The discouragement which the irreparable gives
     The most radical breviary of scepticism since Montaigne
     The violent pleasure of losing
     Umbrellas, like black turtles under the watery skies
     Was I not warned enough of the sadness of everything? 
     Whether they know or do not know, they talk

THE RED LILY

By Anatole France

BOOK 2.

CHAPTER X

DECHARTRE ARRIVES IN FLORENCE

They had dressed for dinner.  In the drawing-room Miss Bell was sketching monsters in imitation of Leonard.  She created them, to know what they would say afterward, sure that they would speak and express rare ideas in odd rhythms, and that she would listen to them.  It was in this way that she often found her inspiration.

Prince Albertinelli strummed on the piano the Sicilian ‘O Lola’!  His soft fingers hardly touched the keys.

Choulette, even harsher than was his habit, asked for thread and needles that he might mend his clothes.  He grumbled because he had lost a needle-case which he had carried for thirty years in his pocket, and which was dear to him for the sweetness of the reminiscences and the strength of the good advice that he had received from it.  He thought he had lost it in the hall devoted to historic subjects in the Pitti Palace; and he blamed for this loss the Medicis and all the Italian painters.

Looking at Miss Bell with an evil eye, he said: 

“I compose verses while mending my clothes.  I like to work with my hands.  I sing songs to myself while sweeping my room; that is the reason why my songs have gone to the hearts of men, like the old songs of the farmers and artisans, which are even more beautiful than mine, but not more natural.  I have pride enough not to want any other servant than myself.  The sacristan’s widow offered to repair my clothes.  I would not permit her to do it.  It is wrong to make others do servilely for us work which we can do ourselves with noble pride.”

The Prince was nonchalantly playing his nonchalant music.  Therese, who for eight days had been running to churches and museums in the company of Madame Marmet, was thinking of the annoyance which her companion caused her by discovering in the faces of the old painters resemblances to persons she knew.  In the morning, at the Ricardi Palace, on the frescoes of Gozzoli, she had recognized M. Gamin, M. Lagrange, M. Schmoll, the Princess Seniavine as a page, and M. Renan on horseback.  She was terrified at finding M. Renan everywhere.  She led all her ideas back to her little circle of academicians and fashionable people,