'You understand why I love my Coco!' But Angela thought there was something grimly horrible in the coming back of the dead soldier's voice from battles fought long ago.
Giovanni came to see her two days after she had moved, but this time Madame Bernard did not leave them together very long.

She had a lively sense of her responsibility, now that the young girl was altogether in her charge, and she felt that the proprieties must be strictly observed.

It must never be thought that Giovanni was free to see Angela alone whenever he pleased, merely because her people had turned her out.
He looked distressed, and the young girl at once suspected some new trouble; and she was not mistaken, for her advice had begun to bear fruit already, and the inevitable was closing in upon them both.
He told the story in a few words.

It had been decided in the War Office for some time that a small exploring and surveying expedition should be sent up the country from the Italian colony at Massowah with the idea of planning some permanent means of inland communication with the British possessions.

Giovanni's father had seen a chance for him to distinguish himself and to obtain more rapid promotion, and by using all the considerable influence he possessed in high quarters he had got him appointed to be the engineering officer of the party.