"But she was mistaken, you mean to say. He loved her, but did not show it."
"Precisely. He loved her, but he was careful not to show it because he understood that her mother and the Princess wished to marry her to you, and because he happened to know that you were in earnest."
"That was decent of him, at all events," Guido said wearily. "Some men would have behaved differently."
"I daresay," Lamberti answered.
"Is he a man I know?"
"Yes. You know him very well."
"And now she has asked you to tell me his name. I suppose that is why you begin this conversation. You are trying to break it gently to me." He smiled contemptuously.
"Yes!"
The word was spoken as if it cost an effort. Lamberti held his stout stick with both hands over his crossed knee and leaned back, so that it bent a little with the strain.
"My dear fellow," said Guido, with a little impatience, "it seems to me that you need not take so much trouble to spare my feelings! If you do not tell me who the man is, some one else will."