'It seems to me, señora Nisida, that since the sun is now setting it would be well for us to go, if we are to reach to-morrow the spot where they say our father is.'
The lady had scarcely said this, when Darinto and his companion looked at her, showing that it had grieved them that she had called the other by her name. But when Elicio heard the name of Nisida, the thought struck him whether it was that Nisida of whom the hermit Silerio had related so many things, and the same idea came to Thyrsis, Damon and Erastro. And Elicio, to assure himself of what he suspected, said:
'A few days ago, señor Darinto, I and some of us who are here heard the name of Nisida mentioned, as has been done by that lady now, but accompanied by more tears and referred to with more alarm.'
'Is there perchance,' replied Darinto, 'any shepherdess on these banks of yours called Nisida?'
'No,' replied Elicio; 'but she whom I speak of was born on them, and was nurtured on the remote banks of the famous Sebeto.'
'What is it you say, shepherd?' rejoined the other gentleman.
'What you hear,' replied Elicio, 'and what you will hear at greater length, if you assure me of a suspicion I have.'
'Tell it me,' said the gentleman, 'for it might be that I shall satisfy you therein.'
To this Elicio replied: 'Is your own name, sir, perchance Timbrio?'
'I cannot deny that truth to you,' replied the other, 'for I am called Timbrio, which name I had fain concealed till another more fitting season; but the wish I have to know why you suspected that I was so called, constrains me to conceal naught from you of what you might wish to know of me.'