“No.” The word came quick and curt.
“Truly,” said I, “it would give me great relief to be assured of that. The love of our kindred, then, is permitted?”
“‘Whoso loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this mandate we have from God: that he who loveth God, love his brother also.’”
“Father,” said I, fairly enchanted to hear such words, “are those words of some holy doctor, such as Saint Austin?”
“They are the words,” saith he softly, “of the disciple that Jesu loved. He seems to have caught a glimmer of his Master.”
“But,” said I, “doth it mean my mother’s son, or only my brother in religion?”
“It can scarcely exclude thy mother’s son,” saith he somewhat drily. “Daughter, see thou put God first: and love all other as much as ever thou canst.”
“Ha, jolife!” cried I, “if the Church will but allow it.”
“What God commandeth,” said he, “can not His Church disallow.”
Methought I heard a faint stress on the pronoun.