"And you knew all this and said nothing? Why did you say nothing? I can't make it out. Certain things have become clear--your ill-humour, your hints and insinuations, your obstinacy in not coming to Albano. But I cannot comprehend your silence. Ah! how hideous all this is! Hideous! Hideous! Certainly the world is malicious; its malice would be monstrous if it weren't ridiculous! We needn't pay attention to it! You are right; in a city like Rome, where anything seems possible, and nobody believes what is said----" "No, we must pay attention to it," said Regina; "just because in a city like Rome anything seems possible. It mayn't matter so much to me, but suppose the calumny should reach the ears of my mother, down there in that corner of a province, where the smallest things seem gigantic! My mother has had great sorrows, but none of them could equal this." "And do you suppose _my_ mother wouldn't care just as much?" interrupted Antonio, piqued. "No doubt she would. But it's for you to consider your mother, I mine! However, it shows you that even at Rome one must heed the clatter of tongues. If it were only you and I in face of that clawing animal, the world, I'd laugh at it. But, my dear, we aren't alone! Caterina will grow up. And if she were to know----" At this he gave a cry almost wild. "If she were to know! But has it been _my_ fault?" Again Regina felt as if a stone had struck her full in the face. Yes; if there was fault, it came home to herself! _She_ was the mother of the evil which was stifling them. Antonio's cry was one not of defence, but of accusation. She rebelled against it. "I admit," she said, "the fault is not entirely yours. But neither is it all mine." "Who's saying the fault is yours?" "I have said it to myself a thousand times. Antonio, there is no reproach that I have not made to myself. How often have I not groaned, 'If I had not been guilty of that lightness of which I was guilty, Antonio would not have forced himself to change our position. He would not have become that woman's servant, not----'" "You said it to yourself a thousand times?" he interrupted. "Do you mean you have been thinking of this for a long while? Why did you not first speak to me? Why? Why? That's what I require to know!" "Oh, don't get angry again!" prayed Regina. "Why didn't I tell you? Because I didn't believe it." "Do you mean you do believe it now? And that you waited to tell me till exactly now, to-day, at this moment?" "I waited for an opportunity----" "Nonsense! There was no lack of opportunities--worse ones even than this!" "I repeat I don't study conventionality. Another woman would have made a scene, conjured you sentimentally to swear the truth on the head of our child. I don't do such things. Once only I was betrayed into a piece of dramatic nonsense. Once was enough!"