Suddenly he was quite himself, for his hurt was altogether local and he had lost little blood; he only felt half paralysed on that side.
'Were there many killed ?' he asked quietly.
'We do not know,' the Mother answered.

'When it is a little later I will telephone for news.

It is barely five o'clock yet.' 'Thank you, Mother.' He shut his eyes again and said no more.
The Mother Superior opened the window and let in the fresh morning air, full of the glow of the rising sun, for the room looked to the eastward, across the broad bend of the Tiber and towards the Palatine.
She turned out the electric light in the corner, then went to the window again and refreshed herself by drawing long breaths at regular intervals, as she had been taught to do when she was a beginner at nursing.

Presently the injured man called her and she went to the bedside again.
'It would be very kind of you to take down a few words which I should like to dictate,' he said.

'No,' he continued quickly, as he saw a grave look in the nun's face, 'it is not my will! It will be a short report of what happened before the explosion.