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 that Marcello Botti comes from Rocca di Papa?"
"Oh, yes," answered Regina readily. "You may say that, if you like."
As a matter of fact she did not care what he wrote in his big book, and he might as well write one name as another, so far as she was concerned.
"But I never saw him there," she added by an afterthought. "There are many people of that name in our village, but I never saw him. Perhaps you had better say that he came from Albano."
"Why from Albano?" asked the Superintendent, surprised.
"It is a bigger place," explained Regina quite naturally.
"Then I might as well write 'Rome' at once?"
"Yes. Why not? If you must put down the name of a town in the book, you had better write a big one. You will be less likely to be found out if you have made a mistake."