“But that’s because he covers everything. He is the ultimate fascist—he imposes himself on all of us and will last forever.”

“Is he as relevant to our time, say, as Shakespeare is?”

“They are the two most universal texts—we’ll leave the classics out for the moment. Their approaches are opposite but they bring you to the same point. It’s like this: Shakespeare has this great immediacy and makes his stage everything; Dante determines what his stage is and then brings everything onto it.”

Tina felt elated with that insight. They were sitting on the front steps of the sea-god’s temple; it was the perfect hour and she was with Jason, who could understand and appreciate what she was saying. He was lounging alongside her on the steps, fondling her arm and looking alternately at her and over the plain at the temples. This is a man I would be with, she thought; he is my equal and yet he is different. “I’d like to feel what you do about him,” Jason said. “Maybe you’ll read him with me.”

“He takes at least three readings. You don’t get to the point of awe until you get beyond the level of the ‘story,’ or reading the ‘Inferno’ at the level of punishment and mere dogma. You begin to see then that the Comedy operates at the level of human choice, which is always relevant—to whatever age. Then you won’t make the mistake of reading Paolo and Francesca as the romantics did and feeling that they were unjustly punished; Francesca damned herself, just as Anna Karenina or Emma Bovary did, by going against the grain of herself. Put it this way, Jason: Hell is the materialization of a person’s choices.”

“You’re going to be a great teacher, Tina.”

He picked a buttercup from among the wild flowers and grasses growing near the steps and held it under her chin. “Let’s see if you’ll make money, too.”

She laughed and looked down at him; their eyes held and he leaned up and kissed her.

“I wish I had known you better before,” he said. “Back in the States. After all, you weren’t really Tim’s girl, so I wouldn’t have been butting in.”

“You never looked at me in the States—or at St. Gregory’s either. You were beyond us then.”

“Well, no matter, we’re here now.”

“Yes, and I’m getting hungry.”

“Come on.” He got up, reached down, and pulled her after him. They wandered among the temples until the last light had gone.