Zuleika gazed pityingly at the peasant girl.
"You loved him once, did you not?" she asked.
"Perhaps I did, perhaps I did not!" replied Annunziata. "I do not know! Certainly my heart spoke for him, but that may have been only friendly esteem! However, after the abduction and the horrible and disgraceful events that followed it, I grew to hate him with the bitterest description of hate! I have told you that I have forgiven him and it was the truth. I have forgiven and am endeavoring to forget him!"
There was a suspicious glitter in the girl's eyes as she spoke, something that hinted of the presence of tears, but the glitter passed away and, turning to Mme. de Rancogne, she said: "Are your guests through with questioning me, Madame the Superior?"
Mme. de Rancogne glanced inquiringly at Monte-Cristo, who nodded his head affirmatively.
"The interview is concluded," replied Helena, "and now, if you so desire, you can return to your apartment."
Annunziata, more affected and agitated by what she had just passed through than she cared to admit, bowed to the visitors and the Superior and hastily quitted the salon.
"Poor girl! she remains perfectly unconvinced!" said Monte-Cristo, after her departure.
"And she is right!" rejoined Mme. de Rancogne, warmly. "I have heard all the details of her story and the chain of evidence against the Viscount Giovanni Massetti is altogether complete. To doubt his guilt would be sheer idiocy!"
After a sojourn of a few hours longer at the Refuge, Monte-Cristo and his party returned to Rome to go actively to work in Massetti's cause.