'It happened just like that,' said Carmela, and nothing more.
'Carmela, who had the audacity to do this to you? Who was the assassin? Bring him to me,' cried Filomena.
'Try and find out the truth,' the magistrate whispered in the woman's ear. He made a sign to the others to stand aside for a little and leave the sisters alone. Now they had bound the girl's head up roughly, and under the bandages her face seemed tinier, more worn, as if rubbed down smaller by the hand.
'My sweet sister, my sweet sister!' Filomena went on saying, still kneeling before Carmela.
'Don't cry—why do you cry?' said the wounded girl, in a curious, solemn, deep voice.
'Tell me who did it!' Filomena said her. 'It was for Raffaele, was it not? Was there a fight? I knew it—I knew it; but I did not get here in time. Holy Virgin, why did you not let me get here in time? I have to see my sister like this because of not getting here in time.'
A livid look had come over the wounded girl's face on hearing this; her eyes had got wide open. With a violent effort she raised her head a little, and said to Filomena, staring at her:
'Tell me the truth.'
'What do you wish, sweetheart?'