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At most they would have dislocated an arm, a leg, or a finger-joint. Unless they chucked them head first." Preciozi could not permit the mortal effects of the Tarpeian Rock to be doubted, and he said that its height had been lessened and the level of the soil had risen. After these explanations Caesar found the spot of Roman executions somewhat less fantastic.
Caesar spoke jokingly of a square like a hole in the ground, out of which rises a white column similar to the one in Paris in the Place Vendome. "What does he mean? Trajan's column?" asked Preciozi. "It must be," said Laura. "I have a brother who's a barbarian. Weren't you in the Forum, too?" "Which is the Forum? An open space where there are a lot of stones?" "Yes."
"I have to go to the Altemps palace a moment." "To see my uncle?" "Yes; then, if you feel like it, we can take a long walk." "Very good." They went towards the centre of the town by the Via Nazionale. It was a splendid sunny afternoon. Preciozi went into the Altemps palace a moment; Caesar waited for him in the street.
During the whole year we are authorized to eat terrestrial animals, and in Lent aquatic ones only. Promiscuous as we are, we are undoing the equilibrium between the maritime and the land forces, we are attacking the peaceful rotation of meat and fish." "He is a child," said Preciozi, "we must leave him alone."
Preciozi took leave, promising to come back the next day. "If he reports our conversation to my uncle, the man won't know what to think of me," reflected Caesar, on going to bed. "It would not be too much to expect, if His Eminence became interested and sent to fetch me. But I don't believe he will; my uncle cannot be intelligent enough to have the curiosity to know a man like me."
Caesar, who hadn't much faith in the ineffable, used to listen to her with a certain amazement, as if the plump, strong woman had been a visionary incapable of understanding reality. In the daytime Caesar went walking with Preciozi and they talked of their respective plans.
I gave the lad a lira and had some trouble in escaping from there, because he followed me around everywhere calling me Excellency." "I think Don Caesar is making fun of us," said Preciozi. "No, no." "But really, how did Rome strike you, on the whole?" asked the abbe. "Well, I find it like a mixture of a monumental great city and a provincial capital." "That is possible," responded the abbe.
Laura presented Caesar and the Abbe Preciozi to the Countess Brenda and to a lady who had just arrived from Malta. "Did you know Rome before?" the Countess asked Caesar in French. "No." "And how does it strike you?" "My opinion is of no value," said Caesar. "I am not an artist. Imagine; my specialty is financial questions.
Caesar burst out laughing, and after lunch he took Laura to the station and remained in Rome alone. His two chief occupations consisted in making love respectfully to the Countess Brenda and going to walk with Preciozi. The Countess Brenda was manifestly coming around; in the evening Caesar would take a seat beside her and start a serious conversation about religious and philosophical matters.
The abbe showed no great desire to stop and speak with him, but the other detained him. This party wore a habit of a brown colour and carried a big umbrella under his arm. "There's a type!" said Caesar, when Preciozi rejoined him. "Yes, he is a peasant," the abbe said with disgust.
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