Jeanne’s secret attendance at Benedetto’s funeral turns a public Catholic burial into the setting for a final, concealed act of mourning. Veiled and unknown to the crowd, she follows Benedetto’s coffin by boat and enters the church with the mourners; only after the burial does her presence become legible to others, as a young man identifies her as the woman for whose sake Benedetto had once fled the world. She kneels at his grave, then vanishes from the story’s view that night.

Arrival in Disguise

The funeral procession reaches the lakeside in darkness. A woman in mourning, accompanied by a maid, boards the steamer carrying Benedetto’s coffin. Her veil is so thick that nobody can see her face, and nobody on board knows who she is. She does not announce herself or claim a place among Benedetto’s companions. Her anonymity is part of the scene: the public gathering can carry her along without knowing the personal history she brings to it.

At the landing, the woman and her companion wait until the other passengers have left before disembarking. They join the procession last, after the priest, the coffin, the candle-bearers, and the rest of the mourners. The crowd makes way for them with an instinctive respect, though the two women remain objects of attention. Only Massimo Alberti and Don Aurelio suspect who the veiled woman may be. Neither speaks; their silence preserves her concealment rather than turning it into public knowledge.

At the Funeral

The mourners carry Benedetto into the church where, years earlier, Don Giuseppe Flores had learned of his flight. The return gives the funeral a pointed spatial echo: Benedetto is brought back to the place associated with his departure, now as a dead man borne to his rites. The church fills quickly with people and lit candles. Jeanne and her companion take a place in the last pew, near the holy-water font, apart from the central movement of the service but inside the same congregation.

During the funeral, Massimo kneels with his face hidden in his hands; the veiled woman is seen praying in the same posture throughout. Their parallel acts of prayer connect them in grief without requiring an exchange or disclosure. The service is public, and the congregation answers the priest, but Jeanne’s participation remains quiet and unclaimed. Even when she attempts to leave after the rites, the narrow lane, distant candles, and crowd lead her back into the church. Her companion then finds a boatman willing to take them to Lugano later, allowing Jeanne to remain near the burial without joining the procession openly.

The Grave and the Recognition

As the coffin is carried from the church toward the cemetery, storm clouds flash and a sudden gust extinguishes nearly all the candles. Another gust puts out the remaining lights by the cemetery steps. This interruption leaves the burial procession moving through wind and darkness, while Don Aurelio reaches the steps with help and delivers his address. He speaks of Benedetto as a troubled wayfarer entrusted to divine mercy, and of the Church’s prayers for the dead as a recognition of human frailty rather than a declaration of anyone’s sanctity. The coffin is lowered beside the grave of Elisa Maironi; final prayers are said, and the grave is closed.

After the congregation disperses, Jeanne’s companion asks the gravedigger to leave the gate open for a few more minutes. Massimo and Don Aurelio intervene so the request is granted. Jeanne then kneels on the newly disturbed earth and stays there briefly. The gesture is the only direct, solitary farewell the narrative shows her making at the grave. She says nothing. When her companion recounts that the young men had offered them a place aboard the steamer, and that the offer had been refused, Jeanne gives no spoken reply.

The two women set out toward Oria. When the boatman warns that the lake is rough and a second rower is needed, Jeanne signals her companion to arrange one. The parish priest offers to guide them through the dark village lane to the shore; Jeanne again indicates that the offer should be declined, though her companion accepts for fear of falling. The companion gives the priest a gold coin for his poor in Jeanne’s name. These small decisions sustain the same pattern as the funeral: Jeanne directs the journey but avoids becoming its visible center.

Disclosure and Departure

The women board a launch while the steamer is still waiting. As they pass close by it, light from the first-class cabin falls across them, and Jeanne raises her veil. A young man recognizes her as the woman because of whom Benedetto had fled the world. The others know the story only vaguely and do not know her name. Her identity thus emerges in fragments: a remembered connection is recognized, but the person herself remains largely undisclosed to the crowd.

The mourners hurry from stern to bow, trying to see the small boat as it struggles over the waves. They glimpse it once more in the electric beam of a torpedo boat; then Jeanne disappears from their sight, that night and forever. Her secret attendance does not restore her to Benedetto’s community or open a conversation with those who knew him. It instead places her at the edge of its rites: admitted to the church, hidden in the congregation, and alone at the grave after the others have gone. The funeral’s public prayers and ordered procession surround a private mourning that becomes visible only for a moment, when the lifted veil reveals the face behind the silence.