"You ought to have been in Athens," he would say to Bonamy when he got back.

"Standing on the Parthenon," he would say, or "The ruins of the Coliseum suggest some fairly sublime reflections," which he would write out at length in letters.

It might turn to an essay upon civilization.

A comparison between the ancients and moderns, with some pretty sharp hits at Mr.Asquith--something in the style of Gibbon.
A stout gentleman laboriously hauled himself in, dusty, baggy, slung with gold chains, and Jacob, regretting that he did not come of the Latin race, looked out of the window.
It is a strange reflection that by travelling two days and nights you are in the heart of Italy.

Accidental villas among olive trees appear; and men-servants watering the cactuses.