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Updated: June 3, 2025
"It is clean, and the things are new, and the curtains have been washed. It is not wretched. We have been in worse lodgings when we have travelled and stopped in small towns. Professor Kalmon has been very kind. It was wise to bring me here." He wished she had seemed discontented. "Have you rested a little?" he asked. "I have slept two or three hours. And you? You look tired."
"I am very, very sorry," she said, leaning forward a little and looking into the worn face, colourless now that the fever had subsided for a while. The same bright smile that Kalmon had seen lighted up Regina's features. "But I am glad!" she answered. "They do not understand that I am glad." "No, no!" cried Aurora softly. "Don't say you are glad!"
The final decision had perhaps been reached on that evening down by the Roman shore, when Professor Kalmon had held up to his eyes the sure means of taking the first step towards its accomplishment; and it had been before him late on the same night when he had stood still in the verandah holding the precious and terrible little tablet in the hollow of his hand; and the next morning when he had suddenly seen Marcello close before him, unconscious of his presence and defenceless.
Already there were hollows in them, too, and at her temples, for the perniciosa fever is frightfully quick to waste the body. In the Campagna, where it is worst, men have died of it in less than four hours after first feeling it upon them. Great men have discovered wonderful remedies for it, but still it kills. Kalmon got one of the great men, who was his friend, and they did what they could.
Marcello and Kalmon were bending over Corbario, Marcello holding the lantern, while the Professor listened for the beating of the heart and felt the pulse. They paid no attention to Regina for the moment. "Why don't you speak?" she asked, surprised by Ercole's silent stare. "You don't know me," he said slowly, "but I know you."
There was no reason why she should not have looked at him just then, but he rested one elbow on the table and shaded his eyes from the light. "It is strange to reflect," said Kalmon, looking at the tube thoughtfully, "that one of those little things would be enough to put a Hercules out of misery, without leaving the slightest trace which science could discover."
Worse than that, there would be a long inquiry to show that Corbario had murdered his mother. Skilled surgeons were tending the man's wounds and reviving him by every means that science could suggest. Kalmon said that he might live. He was being kept alive in order to be condemned to the expiation of his crimes in penal servitude, since Italian law could not make him pay for them with his life.
I don't quite know what he did there, but Professor Kalmon has found out a great deal about him from the Argentine Republic, where he lived until he killed somebody and had to escape to Europe. If I were you I would go and see the Professor, since he is in Rome. He lives at No. 16, Via Sicilia. He will tell you a great deal about that man when he knows that you have parted for good."
"You will never sleep again if I tell you about it," answered the Professor, opening his brown eyes very wide and trying to look terrible, which was quite impossible, because he had such a kindly face. "You do not look frightened at all," he added, pretending to be disappointed. "Let me see the thing," Aurora said. "Perhaps we shall all be frightened." "It looks very innocent," Kalmon answered.
"Are you quite sure that you never saw me before?" he asked, taking the young man's hand. "I don't remember," answered Marcello, wearily. "They all want me to remember," he added almost peevishly. "I would if I could, if it were only to please them!" Kalmon went away, for he saw that his presence tired the patient.
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