She merely whispered: "You were making believe, eh?"
Jeanne said that Noemi must certainly start for the Sacro Speco at once,
but that she herself intended to wait for her in the garden. Noemi
suspected another plot.
"No, no!" she exclaimed, "either you come to the Sacro Speco or--if you
do not feel well enough--we will go down to Subiaco at once."
Jeanne objected that it would be useless to go down now, for they would
not find the carriage; but Noemi was determined not to yield. They could
walk down very slowly, and be ready for the carriage as soon as it
arrived. Jeanne refused again, more emphatically than before, having
no other argument to set forth. Then Noemi looked searchingly into her
eyes, silently trying to read her hidden purpose there. In that moment
of silence Jeanne's heart was again assailed by the beggar's words.
Impulsively she seized her friend's arm.
"You wish me to go to the Sacro Speco?" she said. "Very well, let us go
then. You believe something and you do not know! Let Fate decide!"
But before moving a step she dropped her friend's arm, and while Noemi,
completely bewildered, stood watching her she wrote in her notebook: "I
am at the Sacro Speco.
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