Page:Gissing - The Emancipated, vol. I, 1890.djvu/81

Rh Common to the three was a resolve to be modern, advanced and emancipated, or perish in the attempt. Every one who spoke with them must understand that they were no everyday young ladies, imbued with notions and prejudices recognized as feminine, frittering away their lives amid the follies of the drawing-room and of the circulating library. Culture was their pursuit, heterodoxy their pride. If indeed it were true, as Mrs. Bradshaw somewhat acrimoniously declared, that they were all desperately bent on capturing husbands, then assuredly the poor girls went about their enterprise with singular lack of discretion.

Each had her rôle. Barbara's was to pose as the adorer of Italy, the enthusiastic glorifier of Italian unity. She spoke Italian feebly, but, with English people, never lost an opportunity of babbling its phrases. Speak to her of Rome, and before long she was sure to murmur rapturously, "Roma capitale d'Italia!"—the watch- word of anti-papal victory. Of English writers she loved,