boast, they tell stories about themselves to show how witty or how gay or how brave they have been.”
"Every race is self-conscious,” answered Lady Fitz-Smith, “and the Italian form of self-consciousness is not a deadly, blighting thing as ours is. It vivifies them, it is full of good-humor and picturesqueness. If an Italian says, ‘See, I was brave, or witty, or strong!’ he says it buoyantly. He is enthusiastic over the qualities themselves as well as his manifestation of them, and he will be even more enthusiastic over the same qualities as shown by a friend. Of course they have little or no prejudice in favor of telling the truth,” she admitted in answer to a further criticism of Mrs. Garrison’s,“and they have n’t what we call moral force, but they have so much else, —so much more of warmth and sensibility of affection.”
“They have too much sensibility,” said Margaret. “They have a great deal of emotionalism about friends who were unhappy years ago, or brothers or mothers who died before they were born,—things about which no well-balanced person would have any vivid or active feeling; and one always knows that their feelings are superficial and mean nothing.”
“They mean what they feel at the moment,”82
