In a moment she brought out a letter, sealed, stamped, and postmarked, and held it up before the tall prelate's eyes.
It was addressed to 'Donna Angela Chiaromonte,' to the care of Madame Bernard at the latter's lodgings in Trastevere, the stamp was an Italian one, and the postmark was that of the military post-office in Massowah.

Monsignor Saracinesca looked at the envelope curiously, took it from Madame Bernard and examined the stamped date.

Then he asked her if she was quite sure of the handwriting, and she assured him that she was; Giovanni had written before he started into the interior with the expedition, and she herself had received the letter from the postman and had given it to Angela.

What was more, after Angela had gone to live at the Convent, Madame Bernard had found the old envelope of the letter in a drawer and had kept it, and she had just looked at it before leaving her house.
'He is alive,' she said with conviction; 'he has written this letter to her, and he does not know that she is a nun.

He is coming home, I am sure!' Monsignor Saracinesca was a man of great heart and wide experience, but such a case as this had never come to his knowledge.