ble, half seated, half lying across it, on the heaps of
papers and account-books, and her outstretching hands clasped the foot
of the old crucifix beside the leaden inkstand.

'Miserere mei, Domine!'

The voice of her prayer broke the stillness like a silver bell. Then
she began to recite the greatest of the penitential psalms.

'Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my
voice.'

And by long habit, yet with some dim hope of peace, Sister Giovanna
responded:

'Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.'

They said it to the end, verse answering verse, and the prayer of the
King-Poet stilled the throbbing of hurts too deep to heal.

Two hours after she had fainted in the hall, Sister Giovanna was doing
her work in the hospital again as usual. A wonderful amount of
physical resistance can be got out of moral conviction, and there is
no such merciful shelter for mental distress as a uniform, from the
full dress of a field-marshal to a Sister of Charity's cornet.

Of the persons who had been witnesses of the scene, the Doctor and Ugo
Severi could be trusted, and Princess Chiaromonte was too much afraid of
Giovanni to brew gossip about his love-affair. There remained the two
orderlies, who could not be prevented from telling the story to their
wives and friends if they liked; but they were trusty, middle-aged men
of good character; they shared the affectionate admiration for Sister
Giovanna which almost every one in the Convent hospital felt for her,
and they would be the very last to say a word to her discredit. These
circumstances account well enough for the fact that the story did not
get into the newspapers at the time.

Sister Giovanna went back to her work, but she did not go near Ugo
Severi, and she gave strict orders that his brother, if he came to see
him again during the day, was to be accompanied to the door of the
room by an orderly. As Ugo had swallowed nothing but a cup of black
coffee before coming to the hospital, and was therefore in a condition
to take ether, Pieri had given notice that he would operate on the
injured foot at two o'clock. There would be no need for the presence
of the supervising nurse, who would have no difficulty in keeping out
of Giovanni's way for the present, as he would certainly not be
allowed to roam the hospital in search of her.

She meant to meet him once and alone, no matter how she might be
hindered, and nothing that the Mothe