The Cornhill Magazine (Volume 73)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1896 Excerpt: ... the grace one expects in Florentine ladies. But almost her first words were astonishing. 'I hope you are not intellectual, Mr., ' she said, with rather an anxious smile. Her daughter and the young Count, her son, also smiled. Having assured her that I was nothing of the kind, she sighed with relief. And yet she herself was distinctly intellectual, which made the matter seem a trifle odd. The truth was she had but just said 'A rivederci!' to one of the lights of English literature, who had, she confessed (and so did her daughter), bored her in a quite pitiable manner. The daughter was cruel enough to compare the poor gentleman to a cloud. 'One does not want clouds in May, ' she added. The young Count (an unobtrusive adolescent) agreed. And then, I am afraid, some rather unkind censures were passed upon certain others of my country people as we drank our tea and looked at the sunlight on the orange trees in the little garden upon which the room opened. I had to congratulate myself that I had gained my footing on the sober grounds of mediocrity. To recommend oneself in Florence it is necessary to be volatile and unpretentious. It isn't at all necessary to be a judge of pictures and statues. This, upon the whole, is a mercy, for Professor Kuskin has made it hard for the average Philistine to express an opinion about Florentine works of art without avowing his own ignorance. Praise Florence in a general manner, and you will win the hearts of the Florentines. This is a simple and easy programme. As for the leisured roung men of the city, these devote themselves strenuously to but a couple of aims: the garnishing of their own dear persons and the pursuit of fair ladies. In the former particular they are not more eccentric than their peers elsewhere. But in their amo...