birth a girl could not easily be legally married in
Italy; if the Prince had lived and she had been about to marry, what
would he have done about that? But he was gone, and she would not ask
herself such a question, for the answer seemed to be that he would
have done something dishonest rather than admit the truth. A deep
resentment sprang up in her against the dead man and woman who had not
honourably kept their solemn promise to her mother, and her aunt's
lawless act and hatred of her sank into insignificance beside their
sin of omission. If the Princess's confession during her illness had
not been altogether the invention of a fevered brain, and if there had
really been a will, it had been worthless, and its destruction had not
robbed Angela of a farthing. She and her mother had been cheated and
their lives made desolate by those other two; she must not think of
it, lest she should hate the dead, as she had dreaded to hate the
living.

All this had flashed upon her mind in one of those quick visions of
the truth by which we sometimes become aware of many closely connected
facts simultaneously, without taking account of each. After the Mother
Superior had ceased speaking the silence lasted only a few seconds,
but it seemed long to her now that she had told her secret and was
waiting to be answered. Would her daughter forgive her? The young
nun's face expressed nothing she felt at that moment; for the staring
eyes and parted lips remained mechanically fixed in a look of blind
surprise long after her thoughts were on the wing; and her thoughts
flew far, but their wide-circling flight brought them back, like
swallows, as swiftly as they had flown away.

Then her heart spoke, and in another moment she was at her mother's
knee, like a child, with a little natural cry that had never passed
her lips before. For a breathing-space both guessed what heaven might
hold of rest, refreshment, and peace, and the march of tragic fate was
stayed while mother and daughter communed together, and dreamed of
never parting on earth but to meet in heaven, of keeping their sweet
secret from all the world as something sacred for themselves, of
working side by side, in one life, one love, one faith, one hope, of
facing all earthly trouble together, and of fighting every battle of
the spirit hand in hand.

Two could bear what one could not. Sister Giovanna felt that fresh
strength was given her, and the long-tried elder woman was conscious