"Because if
you do not speak you will never get anything."
"It will be the same if I do," observed Ruggiero stolidly.
"I believe that very little," returned the other. "And I will tell you
something. If I were to speak to Teresina for you and say, 'Here is my
brother Ruggiero, who is not a great signore, but is well grown and has
two arms which are good, and a matter of seven or eight hundred francs
in the bank, and who is very fond of you, but he does not know how to
say it. Think well if you will have him,' I would say, 'and if you will
not, give me an honest answer and God bless you and let it be the end.'
That is how I would speak, and she would think about it for a week or
perhaps two, and then she would say to me, 'Bastianello, tell your
brother that I will have him.' Or else she would say, 'Bastianello, tell
your brother that I thank him, but that I have no heart in it.' That is
what she would say."
"It may be," said Ruggiero carelessly. "But of course she would thank,
and say 'Who is this Ruggiero?' and besides, the world is full of
women."
Bastianello was about to ask the interpretation of this rather
enigmatical speech when there was a stir on the pier and two or three
boats put out, the men standing in them and sculling them stern
foremost.
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