ywhere associated with his own.

He would have taken her away from Rome at once, if he could have done
so. But he knew that they would both be called upon during the next few
days to repeat in court the evidence they had already given in their
first deposition. There was sure to be the most frightful publicity
about the whole affair, of which reports would be published not only in
Rome but throughout Italy, and all over the world. In real life the
consequences of events generally have the importance which fiction is
obliged to give the events themselves; which is the reason why the
things that happen to real people rarely come to any precise conclusion,
like those reached by a play or a novel. The "conclusion" lies in the
lives of the people, after the tragedy, or the drama, or the comedy has
violently upset their existences.

"You cannot stay here," Marcello repeated with conviction.

"You will go on living at your villa," Regina answered. "Why should I
not go on living in this house? For a few days I will not go out, that
is all. Is it the end of the world because a person has been killed who
ought to have died in the galleys? Or because the man who tried to kill
you was caught in a place that belongs to you? Tell me that."

"You cannot stay here," Marcello repeated a third time.

For a while Regina was silent. They were both very white and heavy-eyed
in the cold daylight, though they could not have slept. At last she
looked at him thoughtfully.

"If we were married, we should go on living in our own house," she said.
"Is it true, or not? It is because there will be talking that you are
ashamed to let me stay where I am, and would like to get me away. This
is the truth. I know it."

Marcello knew it too and did not answer at once, for it was not easy to
decide what he ought to do. The problem that had seemed so hard to solve
a few hours earlier was fast getting altogether beyond solution. There
was only one thing to be done in the first present difficulty; he must
take Regina to some other place at once. No doubt this was easy enough.
He would take an apartment for her elsewhere, as far as possible from
the scene of the tragedy, and in a few hours she could be installed
there out of the way of annoyance. He could buy a house for her if he
chose, for he was very rich. Possibly some house already belonging to
him was vacant; his lawyer would know.

But after that, what was to come? If Corbario lived, there would