But, as you say, she may have invented the story and sent the newspaper men here to worry our lives with their questions, out of mere spite." "Who was this Regina ?" Ercole asked.

"What has she to do with it ?" "Regina?
She was the servant girl we had before this one.

We took her out of charity." "The daughter of some relation, no doubt," Ercole suggested.
"May that never be, if it please the Madonna!" cried Paoluccio.

"A relation?
Thank God we have always been honest people in my father's house! No, it was not a relation.

She came of a crooked race.