A wonderful amount of
physical resistance can be got out of moral conviction, and there is
no such merciful shelter for mental distress as a uniform, from the
full dress of a field-marshal to a Sister of Charity's cornet.
Of the persons who had been witnesses of the scene, the Doctor and Ugo
Severi could be trusted, and Princess Chiaromonte was too much afraid of
Giovanni to brew gossip about his love-affair. There remained the two
orderlies, who could not be prevented from telling the story to their
wives and friends if they liked; but they were trusty, middle-aged men
of good character; they shared the affectionate admiration for Sister
Giovanna which almost every one in the Convent hospital felt for her,
and they would be the very last to say a word to her discredit. These
circumstances account well enough for the fact that the story did not
get into the newspapers at the time.
Sister Giovanna went back to her work, but she did not go near Ugo
Severi, and she gave strict orders that his brother, if he came to see
him again during the day, was to be accompanied to the door of the
room by an orderly. As Ugo had swallowed nothing but a cup of black
coffee before coming to the hospital, and was therefore in a condition
to take ether, Pieri had given notice that he would operate on the
injured foot at two o'clock.
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