“I? But I have never seen your step-father.”
“No, Signora. But—but you have that girl here in your house.”
“What girl?”
Suddenly, almost while she was speaking, Hermione understood.
“Peppina!” she said. “It was your Patrigno who wounded Peppina?”
“Si, Signora.”
There was a silence between them. Then Hermione said, gently:
“I am very sorry for your poor mother, Ruffo—very sorry. Tell me, can she manage? About money, I mean?”
“It is not so much the money she was crying about, Signora. But, of course, while Patrigno is in prison he cannot earn money for her. I shall give her my money. But my mamma does not like all the neighbors knowing about that girl. It is a shame for her.”
“Yes, of course it is. It is very hard.”