"Go on."
"Gabrie says you are Madame Makuline's lover."
He reddened. Anger deformed his face. He dropped Regina's hand and flung it from him, opening his lips with gestures of astonishment and wrath.
"She said that to you?" he cried.
His voice resounded in the silence of the road.
"She told me, yes."
He stood still. Regina stood still. Her heart beat. His hands, hanging down, groped as if trying to lay hold of something. The gesture is customary with actors at the dramatic moments of their part. Regina feared that Antonio acted his part too well. Then she thought, forcing herself to be just—
"If he is innocent, it's natural he should be upset."
"And you, you——" he burst out, "did not strike her? You actually thought of bringing her with us to-day!"
"Antonio," exclaimed Regina, looking at him with feigned surprise, "you promised to be patient!"