"Why did you not say so?
Why did you not say so at once ?" he cried fiercely.

"Is it about that you have been fencing all this time?
Is that what you were seeking?
And I fancied--A price, eh?
I suppose"-- in a lower tone, and with a gleam of cunning in his eyes--"he does not really want--the impossible?
I am not a very rich man, Messer Basterga--you know that; and I am sure you would tell him.

You would tell him that men do not count wealth here as they do in Genoa or Venice, or even in Florence.

I am sure you would put him right on that," with a faint whine in his tone.

"He would not strip a man to the last rag.