RICHARD.
Then why did you wish to keep secret your wooing?
ROBERT.
Wooing?
RICHARD.
Your advances to her, little by little, day after day, looks, whispers. [With a nervous movement of the hands.] Insomma, wooing.
ROBERT.
[Bewildered.] But how do you know all this?
RICHARD.
She told me.
ROBERT.
This afternoon?
RICHARD.
No. Time after time, as it happened.
ROBERT.
You knew? From her? [Richard nods.]. You were watching us all the time?
RICHARD.
[Very coldly.] I was watching you.
ROBERT.
[Quickly.] I mean, watching me. And you never spoke! You had only to speak a word—to save me from myself. You were trying me. [Passes his hand again over his forehead.] It was a terrible trial: now also. [Desperately.] Well, it is past. It will be a lesson to me for all my life. You hate me now for what I have done and for...