Mother Veronica had told him of what had happened in the hall; he had known the rest long ago from Sister Giovanna herself.

That was the substance, and he wasted no words.

Then he paused, and she knew what was coming next, for he would speak of a possible meeting; but how he would regard that she could not guess, and she waited steadily for the blow if it was to be one.
'The Mother Superior thinks that you should not see him,' he said.
'I know.

She told me so.' 'I do not agree with her,' said Monsignor Saracinesca slowly.
The nun turned her face from the afternoon light, but said nothing; with the greatest sacrifice of her life before her she should not feel joy rising like the dawn in her eyes, at the mere thought of seeing the man whose love she must renounce.
'We are human,' said the churchman, 'and our victories must be human, to be worth anything.

It was in His humanity that Christ suffered and overcame.