Guido did not smile.
"Without meaning to do her an injustice," he answered, "I think it much more probable that she would have poisoned me."
"With the help of Monsieur Leroy, she might have succeeded."
At the thought of the man whom he so cordially detested, Lamberti's blue eyes grew hard, and his upper lip tightened a little, just showing his teeth under his red moustache. Guido looked at him and smiled in his turn.
"There are your ferocious instincts again," he said; "you wish you could kill him."
"I do," answered Lamberti, simply.
He rose from his seat and stretched himself a little, as some big dogs always do after the preliminary growl at an approaching enemy.
"I think Monsieur Leroy is the most repulsive human being I ever saw," he said. "I am not exactly a sensitive person, but it makes me very uncomfortable to be near him. He once gave me his hand, and I had to take it. It felt like a live toad. How old is that man?"
"He must be forty," said Guido, "but he is wonderfully well preserved. Any one would take him for five-and-thirty."
"It is disgusting!" Lamberti kicked a pebble away, as he stood.