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Updated: May 22, 2025
He already connected Folco's knowledge of the Contessa's arrival in Pontresina so closely with Settimia's note that Folco's last statement had taken him by surprise, and a multitude of confused questions presented themselves to his mind. If Settimia had not written about the Contessa, why had she written at all? How did she know where Corbario was stopping in Saint Moritz?
With a single movement Regina was on her feet, for she had been taken by surprise, and her first instinct was to be ready for some new and unsuspected danger. In a flash it seemed to her that since Corbario was in the house, he might very possibly enter suddenly and take Settimia's defence.
We can be out of the house in less than half a minute." Corbario knelt beside her, and took out a handsome English clasp-knife. But he did not cut the cord. He looked down into Settimia's face, and she understood. "I could not help it," she answered. "She would have killed me!" Corbario laid his left hand upon her throat. "If you try to scream I shall strangle you," he said in a whisper.
Regina turned her head very slowly and looked coldly down at the agonised face. "I am tired," she said. "I cannot wait any longer." Settimia's eyes seemed to be starting from her head, and her dry lips were stretched till they cracked, and she thought she had screamed again; but she had not, for her throat was paralysed with fear.
"No, you won't," Regina replied, looking about her for something with which to tie the woman's hands, for she had forgotten that this might be necessary. "I shall not let you go until I know everything." She felt that Settimia's thin hands were cautiously trying the strength of her own and turning a very little in her grasp.
They carried Corbario upstairs to an empty room there was, and as they went Regina tried to tell Marcello what she had done. They opened Settimia's door, which was still locked, and they found her quite dead, and the window was wide open; then Regina understood that Corbario had been hidden within hearing, and had killed the woman because she had confessed.
In the falling twilight he told her all that had passed through his mind, from the moment when he had seen Settimia's handwriting on the note. Then Regina's lips moved. "He shall pay!" she was saying under her breath. "He shall pay!" "What are you saying?" Marcello asked. "An Ave Maria," she answered. "It is almost dark."
The minutes passed and Settimia's terror grew till the room swam with her, and she lost hold upon herself, and did not know whether she screamed or was silent, as her parched lips opened wide upon her parted teeth. But she had made no sound, and Regina did not even look at her. Death had not come yet; there was a respite of seconds, perhaps of minutes.
Then she sat down upon the floor beside the pillow and looked at her calmly. "In this way we can talk," she said. Settimia's rather stony eyes were wide with fear now, as she lay on her side, watching Regina's face. "I have always served you faithfully," she said. "I cannot understand why you treat me so cruelly."
Regina looked at the little travelling-clock that stood on the low table at her elbow, and saw that it was half-past eleven. Behind the drawn curtains she could hear the rain beating furiously against the shutters, but all was quiet within the house. Regina listened, for Settimia's room was overhead, and when she moved about her footsteps could be heard in the sitting-room.
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