The trinkets are called collectively "the gold." Ruggiero did not find a ready answer to so strong an argument.

Little guessing that his brother was almost as much in love with Teresina as he himself was with her mistress, he saw no reason for undeceiving him concerning his own feelings.

Since Bastianello had discovered that he, Ruggiero, was suffering from an acute attack of the affections, it had become the latter's chief object to conceal the real truth.

It was not so much, that he dreaded the ridicule--he, a poor sailor--of being known to love a great lady's daughter; ridicule was not among the things he feared.

But something far too subtle for him to define made him keep his secret to himself--an inborn, chivalrous, manly instinct, inherited through generations of peasants but surviving still, as the trace of gold in the ashes of a rich stuff that has had gilded threads in it.
"If I did begin with the gold," he said at last, "and if she would not have me when I spoke afterwards, she would give the gold back." "Of course she would.