He imagined to himself that I loved Teresina--I!--" Ruggiero broke off in the sentence and looked away.

His voice shook with the deep vibration that sometimes pleased Beatrice.

He paused a moment and then went on.
"I, who have quite other thoughts.

And so he said with himself, 'Ruggiero loves and is afraid to speak, but I will speak for him.' But it was honest of him, Signorina, for he loved her himself.

And so he asked her for me first.