"If they've told you falsehoods, Bruno, in order to play on your jealousy and inspire revenge...." "Where's Rossi?" he said sharply.
"In England."
"And where's Elena?"
"I don't know."
He wagged his poor head with a wag of wisdom, and for a moment his clouded and stupefied brain was proud of itself.
"It was wrong of Elena to go away without saying where she was going to, and Mr. Rossi is in despair about her."
"You believe that?"
"Indeed I do."
These words staggered him, and he felt mean and small compared to this woman. "If she can believe in them why can't I?" he thought. But after a moment he smiled a pitiful smile and said largely, "You don't know, Donna Roma. But I do, and they don't hoodwink me. A poor fellow here—a convict, he works on the Gazette and hears all the news—he told me everything."
"What's his name?" said Roma.