My pain and indignation were in a sense vicarious ;
I was not myself exposed to any intolerable delay. But there were others there who had been held up for weeks and to whom no explanation had been accorded. Are there no compensations offered by this bestial form of travel? Not speed certainly—they could have reached their destinations quicker in a freight train. The charm of travel is denied them, nor are they able to note the pleasing gradations of climate, colour and vegetation which civilised movement brings. Not beauty, assuredly. From five thousand feet the Bay of Naples is indistinguish- able from Belfast Lough and Rome becomes a dim village on a plain : even the Cycaldes look bald. For, if One could see only the tops of their heads, even Apollo would seem like you or me ; nor could Aphrodite herself reveal her loveliness.
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