mains with my fist. He had been my
enemy! He had shown me what I had to lose, and he had made me lose it.

Even in the midst of my agitation this thought made me smile. How much I
was making of this affair of my secretary. What difference, after
all--But I did not continue the latter question. It did make a
difference, and it was of no use to reason about it. What was I to do
about it? That was more to the point.

At this instant, my nun, followed by Sister Sarah, entered the adjoining
room. The latter merely bowed to me, went out, and locked the door
behind her. I was very glad she did not speak to me, for the sudden
revulsion of feeling produced by the appearance of the two would have
prevented my answering her coherently. I do not know whether my nun
bowed or not. If she did, the motion was very slight. She took her seat
and prepared for work. I did not say anything, for I did not know what
to say. The proper thing to do, in order to relieve my embarrassment and
hers,--that is, if she had any,--was to begin work at once; but for the
life of me I could not remember whether my dictation of the day before
concerned Sicily or Egypt. I did not like to ask her, for that would
seem like a trick to make her speak.

But it would not do to keep her sitting there with an idle pen in her
hand. I must say something, so I blurted out some remarks concerning the
effect of the climate of the Mediterranean upon travelers from northern
countries; and while doing this I tried my best to remember where, on
the shores of this confounded sea, I had been the day before.

Philosophizing and generalizing were, however, not in my line: I was
accustomed to deal with action and definite observation, and I soon
dropped the climate of the Mediterranean, and went to work on some of
the soul-harrowing improvements in the Eternal City, alluding with
particular warmth to the banishment of the models from the Spanish
Stairs. Now the work went on easily, but I was gloomy and depressed. My
nun sat at the table, more like a stiff gray-enveloped principle than
ever before. I did not feel at liberty even to make a remark about the
temperature of the room. I feared that whatever I said might be
construed into an attempt to presume upon the accidental intercourse of
the day before.

For half an hour or more she went on with the work, but, during a pause
in my dictation, she sat up straight in her chair and laid down her pen.
Then, without turning her fa