Do you happen to know who that Sister Giovanna was, who looked so ill?
You sent her back after two days, I think, because you thought she might break down.

She reminded me of a niece of mine whom I have not seen for years, but I did not like to ask her any questions, and besides, I was much too ill.' 'I have no idea who she was before she entered the order,' the doctor answered.
He was often asked such futile questions about nurses, and would not have answered them if he had been able to do so.

But in asking information the Princess was unwittingly conveying it, for it flashed upon him that Sister Giovanna was perhaps indeed that niece of whom she spoke, and whom she was commonly said to have defrauded of her fortune; the nun herself had told him of the sick woman's delirious condition, and he remembered her looks and her admission that she was in mental distress.

All this tallied very well with the guess that her aunt had made some sort of confession of her deed while her mind was wandering, and that she now dimly recalled something of the sort.

He put the theory away for future consideration, and left the Princess in ignorance that he had thought of it or had even attached any special meaning to her words.
She was far from satisfied, however, and made up her mind to follow up the truth at all costs.