Page:The Saint (1906, G. P. Putnam's Sons).djvu/160

126 childish voice, that Noemi knew so well, began again:

"Have you not slept long enough? Can you not talk now? You must have slept three hours!"

Noemi struck a match and looked at her watch, holding which she had previously begged for silence.

"Twenty-two minutes!" she announced. "Be quiet!"

Jeanne was still for a moment, then she uttered those little hm!—hm!—hms!—which are always the prelude to tears in a spoilt child. And the complaining voice went on:

"You do not love me at all! Hm! Hm! For pity's sake let us talk a little! Hm! Hm! Hm!"

In her mother tongue, Noemi sighed:

"Oh! mon Dieu!"

With another sigh she resigned herself to the inevitable:

"Well, go ahead! But what can you say to me that you have not already said in the last four hours?"

The thunder roared, but Jeanne no longer noticed it.

"To-morrow morning we will go to the monastery, " said she.

"Why yes, of course!"

"Only we two alone?"

"Yes, certainly, that is already settled."

The tearful voice was silent a moment, and then went on: