“It does not matter,” Aurora answered softly.  “I am glad you have forgotten, for though I was angry too, and did not care at the time, the things you said have hurt me since.”

“I am sorry,” Marcello said gently, “very, very sorry.  Forgive me.”

“It was all my fault, for I was teasing you for the mere fun of the thing.  I was nothing but a silly school-girl then.”

“Yes.  You have changed, too.”

“Am I at all what you expected I should be?” Aurora asked, after a moment’s silence.

Marcello glanced at her, and clasped his hands over his knee more tightly than ever.

“I wish you were not,” he answered in a low voice.

“Don’t wish that.”  Her tone was even lower than his.

Neither spoke again for some time, and they did not look at each other.  But the flames flickering in the small fireplace seemed to be talking, like a third person in the room.  Aurora moved at last, and changed her position.

“I am glad that you have quarrelled with your stepfather,” she said.  “He meant to do you all the harm he could.  He meant you to die of the life you were leading.”

“You know that?” Marcello looked up quickly.

“Yes.  I have heard my mother and Professor Kalmon talking about it when they thought I was not listening.  I always pretend that I am not listening when anybody talks about you.”  She laughed a little.  “It is so much simpler,” she added, as if to explain.  “The Professor said that your stepfather was killing you by inches.  Those were his words.”

“The Professor never liked him.  But he was right.  Have you seen him often?”

“Yes.”  Aurora laughed again.  “He always turns up wherever we are, pretending that it is the most unexpected meeting in the world.  He is just like a boy!”

“What do you mean?  Is he in love with you?”

“With me?  No!  He is madly in love with my mother!  Fancy such a thing!  When he found that we were coming back to Rome he gave up his professorship in Milan, and he has come to live here so as to be able to see her.  So I hear them talking a great deal, and he seems to have found out a great many things about your stepfather which nobody ever knew.  He takes an extraordinary interest in him for some reason or other.”

“What has he found out?” asked Marcello.

“Enough to hang him, if people could be hanged in Italy,” Aurora answered.

“I should have thought Folco too clever to do anything really against the law,” said Marcello, who did not seem much surprised at what she said.

“The Professor believes that it was he that tried to kill you.”

“How is that possible?” Marcello asked, in great astonishment.  “You would have seen him!”