Well?
Was Don Clemente really the man?
The husband and wife were anxious to know in order to regulate their conduct accordingly.

Giovanni no longer doubted, but his wife was not sure even now.

Noemi! Noemi must know! Giovanni closed the door, while Maria, interpreting her sister's silence as confirmation, insisted: "Then it is really he, really he ?" Noemi was silent.

She would perhaps have betrayed her friend's secret in order to conspire with the Selvas for Jeanne's happiness, had she not been deterred by a doubt of their agreeing with her, and by a sense of wavering in her own mind.

Probably, as Catholics, the Selvas would not wish this man who had fled from the world to return to it.