"I beg your ladyship's pardon, I will return to-morrow."
"For what purpose, signor? And by what right?"
"I will return to gratify Signor Ettore's curiosity, for he is very much puzzled to know who I am; and I will return because you have yourself given me the right to face the man with whom you were pleased to make merry at my expense."
"Is that a threat, Signor Lelio?" she asked, concealing her fright beneath the cloak of pride.
"No, signora. A man who does not falter before another man is not of the threatening sort."
"But my cousin said nothing to you, signor; I did all this jesting against his will."
"But he is jealous and quarrelsome. Moreover, he is brave. Now, I am not jealous, signora, I have neither the right nor the desire to be. But I am quarrelsome, and it may be too that, although my name is not Grimani, I am a brave man; what do you know about it?"
"Oh! I have no doubt of it, Lelio!" she cried, in a tone that made me quiver from head to foot, it was so entirely different from what I had been hearing for two or three days.
I looked at her in amazement; she lowered her eyes with an air at once modest and proud. Once again I was disarmed.
"Signora," I said, "I will do whatever you choose, as you choose, and nothing that you do not choose."