"No!" she cried, pressing her hands to her temples, her face convulsed with terror.
"Giustino Morelli——" he repeated calmly.
"For Heaven's sake, don't speak of him."
Cesare Dias appeared neither to see nor hear her. He wished to go to the bottom of the matter, courageously, pitilessly.
"—was a serious person, an honest man," he concluded.
"He was an infamous traitor," said Anna, in a low voice, as if speaking to herself.
"Anna, he was an honest man. You ought to believe it. You will believe it."
"Never, never."
"Yes, you will. You ought to do him justice. I, who am a man, I must do him justice. He might have issued from his obscurity; he might have had money, a beautiful wife, a wife whom he loved, for he loved you——"