But, Countess, I don't understand--' She held up her hand for silence, and finished the second tumbler of maraschino punch.
'I am a living enigma--and you want to know the right reading of me,' she said.

'Here is the reading, as your English phrase goes, in a nutshell.

There is a foolish idea in the minds of many persons that the natives of the warm climates are imaginative people.

There never was a greater mistake.

You will find no such unimaginative people anywhere as you find in Italy, Spain, Greece, and the other Southern countries.