Sentence:  The Kaiser beamed. Von Bulow had praised him. Von Bulow had exalted him and humbled himself. The Kaiser could forgive anything after that. "Haven't I always told you," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "that we complete one another famously? We should stick together, and we will!" /     [...] /     Von Bulow saved himself in time—but, canny diplomat that he was, he nevertheless had made one error: he should have "begun" by talking about his own shortcomings and Wilhelm's superiority—not by <WSD>intimating</WSD> that the Kaiser was a half-wit in need of a guardian. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To suggest or disclose (something) discreetly.