When she was breathing regularly, the nun left her side and went noiselessly back to her seat behind the screen.
She did not open her breviary again that night.

For a long time she sat quite still, with her hands folded on the edge of the table, gazing into the furthest corner of the room with unwinking eyes.
She had said that she forgave her aunt with all her heart, and she had believed that it was true; but she was less sure now that she could think of her past life, and of what might have been if she had not been driven from her home destitute and forced to take refuge with Madame Bernard.
In the light of what she had just learned, the past had a very different look.

It was true that she had urged Giovanni to join the expedition, and had used arguments which had convinced herself as well as him.

But she had made him go because, if he had stayed, he would have sacrificed his career in the army in order to earn bread for her, who was penniless.

If she had inherited even a part of the fortune that should have been hers, it never would have occurred to him to leave the service and go into business for her support; or if it had crossed his mind, she would have dissuaded him easily enough.