“The Signorina was so kind, Signora, that I forgot. I told her all!—I told her all—I told her—”
Once Peppina had begun to be truthful she could not stop. She recalled—or seemed to—the very words she had spoken to Vere, all the details of her narration.
“And the foreign Signore? Was he there, too?” Hermione asked, at the end.
“No, Signora. He went away. The Signorina told him to go away and leave us.”
Hermione dismissed Peppina quietly.
“Please don’t say anything about this conversation, Peppina,” she said, as the agitated girl prepared to go. “Try to obey me this time, will you?”
She spoke very kindly but very firmly.
“May the Madonna take out my tongue if I speak, Signora!” Peppina raised her hand.
As she was going out Hermione stared at the cross upon her cheek.