'Hush! If you cannot be reasonable, I shall go away!'
'Reasonable!'
There was contempt in his tone, but he sat upright again and said no more.
'Listen to me,' said Sister Giovanna, finding some strength in the small advantage she had just gained. 'I have not let you come here in order to torment you or cheat you, and I mean to tell you the truth. You have a right to know it, and I still have the right to tell it, because there is nothing in it of which I am ashamed. Will you hear me quietly, whatever I say?'
'Yes, I will. But I cannot promise not to answer, when you have done.'
'There is no answer to what I am going to say. It is to be final.'
'We shall see,' said Giovanni gravely, though with no conviction.
But the nun was satisfied, for he was clearly willing to listen. The meeting had disturbed her peace even more than she had expected, but she had done her best during several days to prepare herself for it, and had found strength to decide what she must say, and to repeat it over and over again till she knew it by heart.
'You were reported to be dead,' she began—'killed with the rest of them. You had your share in the great military funeral, and I, and all the world, believed that you were buried with your comrades. Your name is engraved with theirs upon their tomb, in the roll of honour, as that of a man who perished in his country's service. I went there with Madame Bernard before I began my noviciate, and I went again, for the last time, before I took the veil. I had loved you living and I loved you dead.'
Giovanni moved as if he were going to speak, but she would not let him.