"Oh, yes, to a considerable extent."

"And you?" she asked softly.

"Oh, I am not a capitalist! no money of mine has gone into the debt."

"No money of yours, no. But aren't you interested in it?" she
persisted.

This was rather odd. Could she know anything?

She drew nearer to me, and, laying a hand lightly on my arm, said
reproachfully:

"Do you love people, and yet not trust them, Mr. Martin?"

This was exactly my state of feeling toward the signorina, but I could
not say so. I was wondering how far I should be wise to trust her, and
that depended largely on how far his Excellency had seen fit to trust
her with my secrets. I finally said:

"Without disclosing other people's secrets, signorina, I may admit
that if anything went wrong with the debt my employers' opinion of my
discretion would be severely shaken."

"Of your _discretion_," she said, laughing. "Thank you, Mr. Martin.
And you would wish that not to happen?"

"I would take a good deal of pains to prevent its happening."