“I beg your pardon,” said Jem, after a moment’s pause. “I’ll be serious. So Signor Mattei is the difficulty? H’m! How far do you suppose he is involved with this dangerous rival?”
“That is what I cannot make out. He says that she, Violante, is engaged to him but she never mentioned his name.”
“Told you nothing about him?”
“No. So the question is,” said Hugh, in a voice that he tried hard to keep at an even level, “the question is, who is deceiving me?”
“Both and neither,” returned Jem. “What?”
“I dare say she likes you best, and thinks she will try to get out of her previous entanglement.”
“She should have spoken the truth,” said Hugh, frowning.
“Come, Hugh, that’s expecting a great deal of a poor little frightened thing like that, and an Italian, too. What would you have?”
“You did not see her?” said Hugh.
James looked at him, and saw that his hand shook as he put his pipe back into its case while he kept his face turned away.