'From what you have said.'
'I said so little.' She was clearly suspicious.
'But I inferred so much. Too much, perhaps. Let me expose my reasoning.' The truth is he was a little vain of it. 'You expected a messenger from one Lord Barbaresco. You left the garden-gate ajar to facilitate his entrance when he came, and you were on the watch for him, and alone. Your ladies, one of whom at least is in your confidence, were beguiling the gentlemen and keeping them in the lower garden, whilst you loitered watchful by the hedged enclosure. Hence I argue on your part anxiety and secrecy. You were anxious because no message had come for a fortnight, nor had Messer Giuffredo, the usual messenger been seen. Almost you may have feared that some evil had befallen Messer Giuffredo, if not the Lord Barbaresco, himself. Which shows that the secret practices of which these messages are the subject may themselves be dangerous. Do I read the signs fluently enough?'
There was little need for his question. Her face supplied the answer.
'Too fluently, I think. Too fluently for one who is no more than you represent yourself.'
'It is, madonna, that you are not accustomed to the exercise of pure reason. It is rare enough.'
'Pure reason!' Her scorn where his fatuity had expected wonder was like a searing iron. 'And do you know, sir, what pure reason tells me?'
'I can believe anything, madonna,' he said, alluding to the tone she used with him.
'That you were sent to set a trap for me.'
He perceived exactly by what steps she had come to that conclusion. He smiled reassuringly, and shook his moist head.