'I prefer to be called Sister Giovanna, however,' she added, after an instant's pause.
The Princess, though not always courageous, was naturally overbearing and rather quarrelsome, and her temper rose viciously as soon as the restraint which an artificial situation had imposed was removed.
'I really think you should not have kept me in doubt so long,' she said.

'After playing nurse to me in my own house, you can hardly have taken me for another person.

But as for you, your dress has changed you so completely, and you look so much older than any one would have thought possible, that you need not be surprised if I was not quite sure it was really you!' Her niece listened unmoved.

A trained nurse, even if she be a nun, may learn a good deal about human nature in five years, and Sister Giovanna was naturally quick to perceive and slow to forget.

She understood now, much better than the Princess supposed.
'I am not at all surprised,' she said, almost smiling, 'and it cannot possibly matter.' The older woman began to think that her recollections of what she thought she had said in her delirium were nothing more than the record of a dream, but the fear of having betrayed herself still haunted her, although four months had passed, and the present opportunity of setting her mind at rest might not return.