"Yes, certainly, innocent. Can you suppose for a minute that a child of that age would be capable of a deliberate act of malice such as this? Think man, think how easily you might have killed them, and how would you have met your wife with their blood on your hands?"
"Oh, Ragna!" said Egidio sneeringly.
"Where is she?"
"I suppose she is gadding about somewhere, as usual."
Valentini looked at him keenly.
"That is another thing, in fact it was that I was coming to you about when I heard Carolina's screams of 'murder'. You are not treating your wife as you should, Egidio, and as I was partly responsible for the marriage, I cannot stand aside and let things go on as they have been doing. As your friend, as the friend of both of you, I feel that I can be silent no longer."
"So she has been to you with her complaints!"
"She has done nothing of the sort; Ragna is not the woman to complain of her husband to anyone—you should know your wife better by this time."
He paused, but Valentini his eyes sulkily fixed on the carpet, merely shrugged his shoulders.
"No, I speak only of what Virginia and I have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears. You speak slightingly to Ragna and of her, in public; you humiliate her and make her life unbearable. What you say and do in private I have no means of knowing, but I can see that your wife both fears and hates you."