"Thank you. I shall remember that. And you say that you know this poor young man. Now, what is his name, if you please? He does not seem able to remember anything about himself."
"I have always called him Marcello," answered Regina.
"Indeed? You call him Marcello? Yes, yes. Thank you. But, you know, we like to write down the full name of each patient in our books. Marcello, and then? What else?"
By this time Regina felt quite at her ease with the pleasant-spoken gentleman, but in a flash it occurred to her that he would think it very strange if she could not answer such a simple question about a young man she professed to know very well.
"His name is Botti," she said, with no apparent hesitation, and giving the first name that occurred to her.
"Thank you. I shall enter him in the books as 'Botti Marcello.'"
"Yes. That is the name." She watched the Superintendent's pen, though she could not read writing very well.
"Thank you," he said, as he stuck the pen into a little pot of small-shot before him, and then looked at his watch. "The nurse is probably just making him comfortable after the doctor's morning visit, so you had better wait five minutes, if you do not mind. Besides, it will help us a good deal if you will tell me something about his illness. I suppose you have taken care of him."
"As well as I could," Regina answered.
"Where? At Rocca di Papa? The air is good there."