I am not so foolish as not to have thought it all over and understood the truth.

If I ceased questioning you it was because I knew, and loved you all the same." The young woman looked very happy as she spoke, and for this she had good cause, for that very evening she had learnt that Monsignor Palma had shown himself grateful for the service rendered to his nephew by laying a fresh and favourable memoir on the marriage affair before the Congregation of the Council.

He had been unwilling to recall his previous opinions so far as to range himself completely on the Contessina's side, but the certificates of two doctors whom she had recently seen had enabled him to conclude that her own declarations were accurate.

And gliding over the question of wifely obedience, on which he had previously laid stress, he had skilfully set forth the reasons which made a dissolution of the marriage desirable.

No hope of reconciliation could be entertained, so it was certain that both parties were constantly exposed to temptation and sin.