"That is why I am left alone this morning.
Signor Corbario is at Saint Moritz and Marcello is gone down to see him.
I know he is trying to separate us.

You did not know that he was so near ?" "We only came yesterday afternoon," Aurora answered.

"We did not know that--that Signor Consalvi was here, or we should not have come at all." It had stung her to hear Regina speak of him quite naturally by his first name.

Regina felt the rebuke.
"I am truly sorry that I should have accidentally found myself in your path," she said, emphasising the rather grand phrase, and holding her handsome head very high.
Aurora almost smiled at this sudden manifestation of the peasant's nature, and wondered whether Regina ever said such things to Marcello, and whether, if she did, they jarred on him very much.

The speech had the very curious effect of restoring Aurora's sense of superiority, and she answered more kindly.
"You need not be sorry," she said.