'No, hear me!' she cried anxiously. 'I offered God my life and my strength for your sake, and if I have done any good here in five years, as novice and nun, it has been in the hope that it might be accepted for you, if your soul needed it. Though you may not believe in such things, do you at least understand me?'
'Indeed I do, and I am grateful—most grateful.'
She was a little disappointed by his tone, for he spoke with an evident effort.
'It was gladly given,' she said. 'But now you have come back to life——'
She hesitated. With all her courage and strength, she could not quite control her memory, and the words she had prepared so carefully were suddenly confused. Giovanni completed the sentence for her in his own way.
'I have come to life to find you dead for me, as I have been dead for you. Is that what you were going to say?'
She was still hesitating.
'Was it that?' he insisted.
'No,' she answered, at last. 'Not dead for you—alive for you.'
He would have caught at a straw, and the joy came into his face as he quickly held out his hand to her; but she would not take it: hers were both hidden under her white cloth scapular and she shrank from him. The light went out of his eyes.