"I stole eggs and wine to keep him alive," the girl explained. "They
tried to make me give him white beans and oil. They wanted him to die,
because he was an expense to them."

"Who were those people?" asked the Superintendent, putting the question
suddenly.

But Regina had gained time to prepare her story.

"Why should I tell you who they are?" she asked. "They did no harm,
after all, and they let him lie in their house. At first they hoped he
would get well, but you know how it is in the country. When sick people
linger on, every one wishes them to die, because they are in the way,
and cost money. That is how it is."

"But you wished him to live," said the Superintendent in an encouraging
tone.

Regina shrugged her shoulders and smiled, without the slightest
affectation or shyness.

"What could I do?" she asked. "A passion for him had taken me, the first
time that I saw him. So I stole for him, and sat up with him, and did
what was possible. He lay in an attic with only one blanket, and my
heart spoke. What could I do? If he had died I should have thrown myself
into the water below the mill."

Now there had been no mill within many miles of the inn on the Frascati
road, in which there could be water in summer. Regina was perfectly
sincere in describing her love for Marcello, but as she was a clever
woman she knew that it was precisely when she was speaking with the
greatest sincerity about one thing, that she could most easily throw a
man off the scent with regard to another. The Superintendent mentally
noted the allusion to the mill for future use; it had created an image
in his mind; it meant that the place where Marcello had lain ill had
been in the hills and probably near Tivoli, where there is much water
and mills are plentiful.

"I suppose he was a poor relation of the people," said the
Superintendent thoughtfully, after a little pause. "That is why they
wished to get rid of him."

Regina made a gesture of indifferent assent, and told something like
the truth.

"He had not been there since I had been servant to them," she answered.
"It must have been a long time since they had seen him. We found him
early in the morning, lying unconscious against the door of the house,
and we took him in. That is the whole story. Why should I tell you who
the people are? I have eaten their bread, I have left them, I wish them
no harm. They knew their business."

"Certainly, my dear, certainly. I suppose I may say