What could Regina do? Say to him—
"No; stay. I wish to tell you the horrible things I am thinking of you——?"
It was impossible. He had every right to go out for a little, at least in the evening, after a whole day of fatigue.
He went out, and Regina sat down and read the terrible column of the Avanti called "What goes on in the world."
Madame Makuline left Rome two days later, but Antonio still went daily to the villa to see after the letters and dispatch certain affairs.
On Sunday he showed Regina the key, and told her the old servant left in charge of the house had asked leave of absence.
"At last we are proprietors of a villa," he said, joking.
Then Regina was assailed by a temptation. In vain, for some minutes, she tried to put it from her.