“What is necessary? Landscapes?”

“Landscapes are not, either. Nothing is.”

She finished taking off her gloves, and opened the newspaper, which had just been brought from the post. A minute later she said quietly, evidently restraining herself:

“Last week Anna died in childbirth, and if there had been a medical relief centre near, she would have lived. And I think even landscape-painters ought to have some opinions on the subject.”

“I have a very definite opinion on that subject, I assure you,” I answered; and she screened herself with the newspaper, as though unwilling to listen to me. “To my mind, all these schools, dispensaries, libraries, medical relief centres, under present conditions, only serve to aggravate the bondage of the people. The peasants are fettered by a great chain, and you do not break the chain, but only add fresh links to it⁠—that’s my view of it.”

She raised her eyes to me and smiled ironically, and I went on trying to formulate my leading idea.