Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/94

Rh the first object of passion to a woman. But it is troublesome: she exacts so much!"

"If I were not that, I have seldom cared to be anything," said Della Rocca.

"That is an Italian amorous fancy. Romeo and Othello are the typical Italian lovers. I never can tell how a northerner like Shakspeare could draw either. You are often very unfaithful; but while you are faithful you are ardent, and you are absorbed in the woman. That is one of the reasons why an Italian succeeds in love as no other man does. 'L'art de brûler silencieusement le cœur d'une femme" is a supreme art with you. Compared with you, all other men are children. You have been the supreme masters of the great passion since the days of Ovid."

"Because it is much more the supreme pursuit of our lives than it is with other men. How can Love be of much power where it is inferior to fox-hunting, and a mere interlude when there is no other sport to be had, as it is with Englishmen?"

"And with a Frenchman it is always inferior to himself!" confessed the French Duc, with a