Neither spoke.
'I am going to lay the whole matter before the Cardinal Vicar at once,' Monsignor Saracinesca continued calmly.

'I can be with him in twenty minutes, and I am going to tell him the plain truth.

I do not think that any nun was ever more true to her vows than Sister Giovanna has been since your return.

But there is a limit beyond which fidelity to an obligation may bring ruin and even death on some one whom the promise did not at first concern.

When the limit is reached, it is the plain duty of those who have received that promise to relieve the maker of it from its observance, even though not asked to do so.