I should have been delighted to be considered
to that extent; but since that couldn't be I didn't care for
anything less, and I made up my mind not to go in for honours. The
leanest gentleman can always consider himself, and fortunately I
was, though lean, a gentleman. I could do nothing in Italy- I couldn't
even be an Italian patriot. To do that I should have had to get out of
the country; and I was too fond of it to leave it, to say nothing of
my being too well satisfied with it, on the whole, as it then was,
to wish it altered. So I've passed a great many years here on that
quiet plan I spoke of. I've not been at all unhappy. I don't mean to
say I've cared for nothing; but the things I've cared for have been
definite- limited. The events of my life have been absolutely
unperceived by any one save myself; getting an old silver crucifix
at a bargain (I've never bought anything dear, of course), or
discovering, as I once did, a sketch by Correggio on a panel daubed
over by some inspired idiot."
This would have been rather a dry account of Mr. Osmond's' career if
Isabel had fully believed it; but her imagination supplied the human
element which she was sure had not been wanting.
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