It was distracting to know that he was still in Rome, and that until nearly midnight, when the train left for Naples, it would be possible to see him once more.

If she had insisted, Madame Bernard would have consented to go with her in a cab to find him.

It was hard to resist, as she sat by the window, listening to the distant sound of wheels in the street; it was the first great temptation she had ever felt in her life, and as she faced it she was surprised at its strength.

But she would not yield.

In her own gentle womanliness she found something she recognised but could not account for; was it possible that she had some strength of character, after all?
Could it be that she inherited a little of that rigid will that had made her father so like her idea of a Puritan?
He had always told her that she was weak, that she would be easily influenced by her surroundings, that her only hope must be to obtain Divine aid for her feeble, feminine nature.