"Excuse me—does your wife know her?"
Gouache glanced quickly at his visitor's face.
"No."
Gouache was a singularly kind man, and he did his best perhaps for reasons of his own, to convey nothing by the monosyllable beyond the simple negation of a fact. But the effort was not altogether successful. There was an almost imperceptible shade of surprise in the tone which did not escape Giovanni. On the other hand it was perfectly clear to Gouache that Sant' Ilario's interest in the matter was connected with Orsino.
"I cannot find any one who knows anything definite," said Giovanni after a pause.
"Have you tried Spicca?" asked the artist, examining his work critically.
"No. Why Spicca?"
"He always knows everything," answered Gouache vaguely. "By the way, Saracinesca, do you not think there might be a little more light just over the left eye?"
"How should I know?"
"You ought to know. What is the use of having been brought up under the very noses of original portraits, all painted by the best masters and doubtless ordered by your ancestors at a very considerable expense—if you do not know?"