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Severi smiled faintly and shook his head without lifting it from the pillow. 'No man will call me coward, he answered; 'and no one would believe Princess Chiaromonte not if she took oath on her death-bed! 'Will nothing move you? cried the unhappy woman, in utter despair. 'Nothing that I can say? Not the thought of what life will mean to me when you are gone?
'If I had come the very next day after, would you not have done your best to be set free? There was an instant's pause before she spoke; then the answer came, clear and distinct. 'No. Severi turned from her with an impatient movement of his compact head, and tapped the carpeted floor with his heel. His answer broke from his lips harshly. 'You never loved me!
The two young people had not known each other quite a year, for she had never seen Severi till she had left the convent to go out into society and to take her place at her widowed father's table as his only child; but at their first meeting Giovanni had felt that of all women he had known, none but she had ever called his nature to hers with the longing cry of the natural mate.
'No ground? cried Severi indignantly. 'We loved each other, we meant to marry! Is that no reason? 'No. You were not even formally betrothed, either before your parish priest or the mayor. Without a solemn promise in the proper form and before witnesses, there is no binding engagement to marry. That is not only canonical law, but Italian common law, too.
The prelate and Giovanni walked along the quiet street in silence for some distance; then Severi stopped suddenly, as many Italians do when they are going to say something important. 'You will help me, I am sure, he said, speaking impetuously from the first. 'Though I never knew you well in old times, I always felt that you were friendly. You will not allow her to ruin both our lives, will you?
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.
In the first book of his Annals he gives the following account of it in these words: Primus Augustus cognitionem de famosis libellis, specie legis ejus, tractavit; commotus Cassii Severi libidine, qua viros faeminasque illustres procacibus scriptis diffamaverat.
'Captain Severi, you are raving. Giovanni's fiery rage leapt from invective to sarcasm. 'Raving! That is your answer, that is the sum of your churchman's argument! A man who will not let you make a martyr of the woman he adores is raving! Do you find that in Saint Thomas Aquinas, or in Saint Augustine, or in Saint Jerome? He dropped his voice and suddenly spoke with cold deliberation.
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.
'I like it as it is, said Giovanni Severi, resting his hands on the hilt of his sabre, as he sat looking thoughtfully from the portrait to the original. The young girl smiled, pleased by his approbation of the likeness, which she herself thought good, though it by no means flattered.
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