nviction
that Marcello was safe in their hands. She had meant that he should
somehow be taken off the cart at the gate, probably by the inspectors,
and conveyed at once to the great hospital near by. She knew nothing
about hospitals, and supposed that when he was once there, she might be
allowed to come and take care of him. It would be easy, she thought, to
invent some story to account for her interest in him. But she could do
nothing until Mommo was gone, and he might recognise her figure even if
he could not see her face.

Finding that nothing more was wanted of him, and that he was in no
immediate danger of penal servitude for having been found with a sick
man on his cart, Mommo started his mules up the paved hill towards the
church, walking beside them, as the carters mostly do within the city.
The crowd dispersed, the small boys went off in search of fresh matter
for contemptuous comment, and Regina went boldly to the door of the
guard-house.

"Can I be of any use with the sick man?" she asked of the inspector who
had seen her through the window.

The inspector prided himself on his gallantry and good education.

"Signorina," he said, lifting his round hat with a magnificent gesture,
"if you were to look only once at a dying man, he would revive and live
a thousand years."

He made eyes at her in a manner he considered irresistible, and replaced
his hat on his head, a little on one side. Regina had never been called
"Signorina" before, and she was well aware that no woman who wears a
kerchief out of doors, instead of a hat, is entitled to be addressed as
a lady in Rome; but she was not at all offended by the rank flattery of
the speech, and she saw that the inspector was a good-natured young
coxcomb.

"You are too kind," she answered politely. "Do you think I can be of any
use?"

"There are the carabineers," objected the inspector, as if that were a
sufficient answer. "But you may look in through the door and see the
sick man."

"I have seen him through the window. He looks very ill."

"Ah, Signorina," sighed the youth, "if I were ill, I should pray the
saints to send you--"

He was interrupted by the arrival of the doctor, who asked him what was
the matter, and was at once led in by him. Regina withdrew to a little
distance in the direction of the church and waited. The doctor had come
in a cab, and in a few moments she saw Marcello carried out and placed
in it. Then she walked as fast as she could