ably knew well enough what such a request meant just then--the
putting off of a possible operation for hours, owing to the
impossibility of giving ether to a man who has lately eaten anything.
The Mother Superior and the surgeon looked at each other rather
blankly.

'Shall I die any sooner if I am starved?' asked Giovanni almost
roughly.

Pieri began to explain the danger, but Severi at once grew more
impatient.

'I know all that,' he said, 'and I have told you my decision. I refuse
to undergo an operation. If you choose to make me suffer from
starvation I suppose it is in your power, though I am not sure. I
fancy I can still stand and walk, and even my one hand may be of some
use! If you do not give me something to eat, I shall get out of bed
and fight my way to the larder!'

He smiled as he uttered the threat, as if he were not jesting about
his own death. Pieri did not like it, and turned to the door.

'Since you talk of fighting,' he said, 'I would give you ether by
force, if I could, and let the law do what it would after I had saved
your life in spite of you! If you chose to blow your brains out
afterwards, that would not concern me!'

Thereupon he disappeared, shutting the door more sharply than doctors
usually do when they leave a sick-room. The Mother Superior went to
the bedside and leaned over Giovanni, looking into his eyes with an
expression of profoundest entreaty.

'I implore you to change your mind,' she said in a low and beseeching
voice, 'for the sake of the mother who bore you----'

'She is dead,' Giovanni answered quietly.

'For the sake of them that live and love you, them----'

'There is only one, Mother, and you know it; but for that only one's
love I would live, not merely with one arm, but if every bone in my
body were broken and twisted out of shape beyond remedy. Mother, go
and tell her so, and bring me her answer--will you?'

The nun straightened herself, and her face showed what she suffered;
but Giovanni did not understand.

'You are afraid,' he said, with rising contempt in his tone. 'You are
afraid to take my message. It would move her! It might tempt her from
the right way! It might put it into her head to beg for a dispensation
after all, and the sin would be on your soul! I understand--I did not
really mean that you should ask her. You let her watch here last night
when you knew I could not waken, but you were careful that she should
be gone before I opened my eyes. You