She pronounced the words with an accent of pity, drawing herself up to her full height; and there was triumph in the light of her eyes. It is not every woman that has a chance of saying so much to her rival.
"We were children then," Aurora said, in the very words she had used to her mother more than two years earlier.
She was almost as pale as Regina now, for the thrust had been straight and sure, and right at her heart. But she was prouder than the peasant woman who had wounded her.
"I have heard that you saved his life," she said presently. "And he loves you. You are happy!"
"I should always be happy if he and I were alone in the world," Regina answered, for she was a little softened by the girl's tone. "But even now they are trying to part us."
"To part you?" Again Aurora looked up suddenly. "Who is trying to do that? A woman?"
Regina laughed a little.
"You are jealous," she said. "That shows that you love him still. No. It is not a woman."
"Corbario?" The name rose instinctively to Aurora's lips.
"Yes," Regina answered. "That is why I am left alone this morning. Signor Corbario is at Saint Moritz and Marcello is gone down to see him. I know he is trying to separate us. You did not know that he was so near?"