There was a struggle in his mind, for he did not wish to tell Bastianello outright that he did not really care for Teresina.

If he betrayed this fact it would be hard hereafter to account for his own state, which was too apparent to be concealed, especially from his brother, and he had no idea that the latter loved the girl.
"Why should you speak ?" asked Bastianello, repeating the words, and stirring the ashes in his pipe with the point of his knife.

"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.