"And if she had given it to me," she said, in a superb and mocking tone, "do you suppose that I would have deprived myself of it in your favor, Signor Magnani?"
"No, surely not; you should not and would not have done it; but you might have passed along the gallery and dropped it, for I was just under the rail."
"No, I did not! Besides, didn't you see a black dress beside you? Am I dressed in black?"
"I thought, however, that you might have gone down into the yard during that moment that I was asleep, and that, to punish me or to make sport of me, you played that joke on me. If that is the case, Mila, you must agree that the punishment was too light, and you ought to have poured water on my face instead of keeping it for my flowers. But take your ring, I don't want to keep it any longer. It wouldn't be a suitable thing for me to wear, and I should be afraid of losing it."
"I swear to you that that ring was never given to me, that I did not go into the yard while you were asleep; and I will not take what belongs to you."
"As it is impossible that Princess Agatha should have come here this morning——"
"Oh! to be sure, that is impossible!" said Mila, with mischievous gravity.
"And yet she did come here!" said Magnani, thinking that he could read the truth in her gleaming eyes. "Yes, yes, Mila, she came here this morning! You are impregnated with the perfume that her clothes exhale; either you touched her cape, or she kissed you, not more than an hour ago."
"Great heaven!" thought the girl, "how well he knows everything that has any connection with Princess Agatha! how shrewdly he guesses, when she is in question! Suppose it were she with whom he is in love? Well! God grant that it may be, for she will help me to cure him; she loves me so dearly!"
"You don't answer me, Mila," continued Magnani. "Since you are found out, confess."