Why should you care, child ?" "Because he used to be my best friend," Aurora answered demurely.

"Is it wrong to take an interest in one's friends?
And I still think of him as my friend, though I have never had a chance to speak to him since that day by the Roman shore, when he went off in a rage because I laughed at him.

I wonder whether he has forgotten that! They say he lost his memory during his illness." "What a strange girl you are! You have hardly ever spoken of him in all this time, and now"-- the Contessa laughed as if she thought the idea absurd--"and now you talk of marrying him!" "I have seen Regina," Aurora replied, as if that explained everything.
The Contessa returned no answer, and she was rather unusually silent and preoccupied during the rest of that day.

She was reflecting that if Aurora had not chanced to meet Marcello just when Regina was with him the girl might never have thought of him again, except with a half-amused recollection of the little romantic tenderness she had once felt for the friend and playfellow of her childhood.

Maddalena was a wise woman now, and did not underestimate the influence of little things when great ones were not far off.