'I might have known!' he said, deeply disappointed. 'You do not mean it. I suppose you will explain that you are alive to pray for me!'
'You promised to listen quietly, whatever I might say.'
'Yes.' He controlled himself. 'I will,' he added, after a moment. 'Go on.'
'I am not changed,' said Sister Giovanna, 'but my life is. That is what I meant by the inevitable. No person can undo what I have done'—Giovanni moved impatiently—'no power can loose me from my vows.'
In spite of himself, the man's temper broke out.
'You are mad,' he answered roughly, 'or else you do not know that you can be free.'
'Hush!' cried the nun, trying once more to check him. 'Your promise—remember it!'
'I break it! I will not listen meekly to such folly! Before you took the vow, you had given me your word, as I gave you mine, that we would be man and wife, and since I am not dead, no promise or oath made after that is binding! I know that you love me still, as you did then, and if you will not try to free yourself, then by all you believe, and by all I honour, I will set you free!'
It was a challenge if it was not a threat, and Sister Giovanna defended herself as she could. But she was painfully conscious that something in her responded with a thrill to the cry of the pursuer. Nevertheless, she answered with a firm refusal.
'You cannot make me do what I will not,' she said.