Malipieri laughed gaily. It did not seem possible that an hour or two
earlier they had been looking death in the face. But his laughter died
away suddenly, and he was very grave in a moment.
"I do not know what to do now," he said. "We shall have to make the
Baroness believe that you have spent the night at Sassi's house. That
is the only place where you can possibly be supposed to have been. I
am not good at lying, I believe. Can you help me at all?"
Sabina laughed.
"That is a flattering way of putting it!" she answered. "It is true
that I was brought up to lie about everything, but I never liked it.
The others used to ask me why I would not, and whether I thought
myself better than they."
"What are we to do?"
"Suppose that we tell the truth," said Sabina, nibbling thoughtfully
at a last slice of bread. "It is much easier, you know."
"Yes."
Malipieri set his elbows on the table, leaned his bearded chin upon
his scarred knuckles and looked at her. He wondered whether in her
innocence she even faintly guessed what people would think of her, if
they knew that she had spent a night in his rooms. He had no
experience at all of young girls, and he wondered whether there were
many like Sabina. He thought it unlikely.
"I believe in telling the truth, too," he said at last.
Pages:
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267