"An exiled queen!" returned Regina under her breath. CHAPTER V Later, when she thought over that first year of marriage, Regina divided it into many little chapters. Amongst them she attached importance to the chapter of her first visit to the Princess Makuline. It took place on a warm, cloudy evening at the beginning of January. Antonio was missing, having been detained at the Department till nine, doing extra work; but Arduina and Regina waited in the Piazza dell' Indipendenza for Massimo, who was to escort them. The Piazza, almost deserted, was illumined by the pale gold rays of the veiled moon. The bare trees were scarce visible in the vaporous air, the small, motionless flames of the street lamps seemed far away. Regina, standing in the middle of the great square, was pleasantly conscious of silence, solitude, immensity. For the first time since she had been in Rome she caught herself admiring something. "Come along!" said Massimo, arriving hurriedly, and brandishing a pair of new gloves; "three-fifty they cost me! Woe to Madame if she doesn't pay me with some hope!" "I believe you'd be capable of marrying her," said Regina, with a gesture of disgust. "She'd like it," said Arduina. "Shut up! The point is--should I like it?" said the young man. "I'm not for sale." Passing the Princess's little garden gate, Massimo said, "This is the entrance for Madame's lovers!" But they walked on and rang at the hall door of the villa, or rather of the villas, for there were two; small but handsome houses, joined by an aërial terrace or hanging garden. "Like two little brothers holding each other's hands," said Regina, with a sigh. A servant in plain clothes opened the polished door, and disclosed two great wolves, apparently alive, lying in ambush on the red rugs of the entrance hall. The rooms were much overheated. Thick carpets, skins of bears spread before large low divans, themselves covered with furs, exhaled what seemed the hot breath of wild beasts sleeping in the sun--an atmosphere wild, voluptuous, noxious. Huge waving branches of red-berried wild plants rose from tall metal vases. The Princess, richly but clumsily dressed in black velvet and white lace, was discoursing in French to two elderly ladies, telling them the adventures of her aunt, wife of the man who had known Georges Sand. "At that time," she was saying, "my aunt was the best dressed woman in Paris. Georges Sand described one of her costumes in the _Marquis de Villemer_...." Beyond the two elderly ladies, an old gentleman, shaven and bald, his head shining like a bowl of pink china, lolled in an arm-chair and listened sleepily. Marianna, in a low pink dress, ran to the new-comers with her little rat-like steps, and surveyed Regina inquisitively. "You look very well, Madame," she said; "is there no news?" "What news do you expect?" asked Regina.