Do you still find fault with me?
Would you rather have had me go back to the world and to society after mourning you as long as a girl of nineteen could mourn for a man to whom she had not been openly engaged?
Was I wrong?
If you had really been dead and could have seen me, would you have wished that I were living differently ?' For a moment he was moved and held out one hand towards her, hoping that she would come nearer.
'No,' he answered--'no, dear----' 'But that was the only question,' she said earnestly, 'and you have answered it!' She would not take his hand and Giovanni dropped his own with a gesture of disappointment.
'No,' he replied, in a colder tone, 'it is not the question, for you have not told me all the truth.

If I had not been gone five years, if I had come back the day before you took the last vows, would you have taken them ?' 'No, indeed!' 'If I had come the very next day after, would you not have done your best to be set free ?' There was an instant's pause before she spoke; then the answer came, clear and distinct.
'No.' Severi turned from her with an impatient movement of his compact head, and tapped the carpeted floor with his heel.

His answer broke from his lips harshly.
'You never loved me!' She would have done wisely if she had been silent then; but she could not, for his words denied the truth that had ruled her life.
'Better than I knew,' she said.

'Better than I knew, even then.' 'Even then ?' The words had hope in them.

'And now ?' He was suddenly breathless.
'Yes, even now!' The tide of truth lifted her from her feet and swept her onward, helpless.