Are you going to tell me that I should take the letter to her?
She is a cold, hard woman, Monseigneur! A splendid woman to manage a hospital, perhaps, but she has no more heart than a steel machine! She will burn the letter, and never tell any one!' 'I think you are mistaken about her,' answered the churchman gravely.
'She has more heart than most of us, and I believe that even you yourself are not more devoted to Sister Giovanna than she is.' 'Really, Monseigneur?
Is it possible?
Are you sure?
What makes you think so ?' 'To the best of my knowledge and belief, what I have told you is the truth, though I might find it hard to explain my reasons for saying so.

But before you go to the Mother Superior, or speak of the matter to Sister Giovanna, there is something else to be done.

This letter, by some strange accident of the post, may have been written before Giovanni Severi died.

There is a bare possibility that it may have been mislaid in the post-office, or that he may have given it to a comrade to post, who forgot it--many things may happen to a letter.' 'Well?
What must I do ?' 'If he is alive, the fact is surely known already at headquarters, and you should make inquiries.

To give Sister Giovanna a letter from the dead man would be wrong, in my opinion, for it would cause her needless and harmful pain.