“Nay, ’tis sin and sorrow that be nigh the same. All selfishness is sin, and very much of what men do commonly call love is but pure selfishness.”
“Well, I never loved none yet,” remarked Clarice.
“God have mercy on thee!” answered Heliet.
“Wherefore?” demanded Clarice, in surprise.
“Because,” said Heliet, softly, “‘he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is charity.’”
“Art thou destined for the cloister?” asked Clarice.
Only priests, monks, and nuns, in her eyes, had any business to talk religiously, or might reasonably be expected to do so.
“I am destined to fulfil that which is God’s will for me,” was Heliet’s simple reply. “Whether that will be the cloister or no I have not yet learned.”
Clarice cogitated upon this reply while she ate stewed apples.
“Thou hast an odd name,” she said, after a pause.