"Carolina?" he said, "why should I do anything? What is Carolina to me? You have been sitting up all this time to ask me a fool's question like that? You should go to bed, your head is tired, _ti gira ta testa_!" "Carolina," she returned steadily, "has good cause for complaint against you." He tapped his forehead with his forefinger. "You are mad, _mia cara_," he said with a short laugh, but she could see the uneasy expression of his eyes. "Have done with this fooling," said Ragna scornfully, "will you deny that you have made Carolina your mistress? You had better not, you see I know all." He bent forward, an ugly look on his face. "You lie! You spy on me and imagine things." "It is you who lie, Egidio," said Ragna coldly. She was astonished at her own coolness; passion had deserted her, she sat, calm and critical, in the seat of judgment. With a roar he came and stood over her. "Take that back! How dare you! How dare you!" "I am not deaf," said Ragna, "there is no occasion to shout. Please lower your voice and try to behave like a gentleman for once. Go and sit down," she continued without a quiver, "I have not finished yet and I can't speak if you are towering over my chair. And please make up your mind either to speak first and say your say, or else wait until I have done, but don't interrupt me." Her calmness, the low even tones of her voice imposed on him; raging at her and at himself, he yet obeyed, albeit almost unconsciously, and dropped on a chair under his own portrait. "It is quite useless to deny or to bluster," said Ragna, "I know all, I am sorry for Carolina, and I--" "So that slut has been to you with her tale," he interrupted, "and you believe her in preference to your husband. The lying hussy--! I'll teach her--" "Egidio," said the cold accusing voice, "she did not lie, she is a good girl. With all due regard, the one liar in the case is--" "You dare call me a liar!" he roared, rising from his seat. She waived him back again. "When I was a little boy in school, Cardinal Ferri used to call me up and say--" "Yes, yes," she said wearily, "that is an old story, I have heard it many times. The good Cardinal was not infallible, or else you have changed since--" He was choking with inarticulate rage; she continued, "However, that is not the question; what I have been trying to find out is: what are you going to do about Carolina?" "I shall throw the fool out of my house," he said sullenly. "You can't do that, she is going of her own accord; but you owe her reparation." "Reparation!" he raved, "Carolina! reparation! Let her show her face before me again--Reparation! She shall have all she wants and more too!" Carolina, who, aroused by the noise of her master's rage, was listening at the key-hole slunk away and double-locked herself into her room, where she spent the greater portion of the night on her knees before the little image of the Virgin beseeching protection.