"You cannot even tell whether it belonged to the boy or to Corbario.

An apoplexy on you! You understand nothing! Ill befall the souls of your dead, you ignorant beast!" Nino growled, but did not lift his head.
"You understand that," said Ercole, discontentedly.

"If you were a Christian you would stick a knife into me for insulting your dead! Yet you cannot tell whose pocket-book this is! And if I knew, I should know something worth knowing." The pocket-book disappeared in the interior recesses of Ercole's waistcoat.

It was empty and bore no initial, and he could not remember to have seen it in Corbario's or Marcello's hands, but he was quite sure that it belonged to one of them.

He was equally sure that if he showed it to Corbario the latter would at once say that it was Marcello's, and would take it away from him, so he said nothing about it.