“No,” he said, speaking with difficulty, so great was his emotion; “Flaminia Colonna is a woman and a friend ... while I——”
“While you?” she asked.
“I am a man, a husband.”
There was a deep silence between them.
“Is that the reason why you didn’t go to Cecilia Metella with me?” she resumed.
“That is the reason,” he replied.
“What were you fearing?” in a voice still deeper.
“Ridicule. Every one would have laughed at me, seeing me with you.”
She fell back. Her eyes grew clouded, but she had the strength not to open her mouth, to walk away without turning, leaving the man who had told his secret stretched on the sofa like a miserable weakling.