We all exclaimed against this conclusion: but she maintained that it was so.
"Then," she continued, "to Sybil, it means depriving herself of her lord's society, either for his advantage or for that of some one else."
Lady Sybil smiled and blushed. "Then my ruling sin——?" she said interrogatively.
"Nay, I did not undertake to draw that inference in any case but my own," said Lady Judith with an answering smile.
We all—except Lady Isabel—begged that she would do it for us. She seemed, I thought, to assent rather reluctantly.
"You will not like it," said she. "And if you drew the inference for yourselves, you would be more likely to attend to the lesson conveyed."
"Oh, but we might do it wrong," I said.
Lady Judith laughed. "Am I, then, so infallible that I cannot do it wrong?" said she. "Well, Sybil, my dear, if thou wouldst know, I think thy tendency—I do not say thy passion, but thy tendency—is to idolatry."
"Oh!" cried Lady Sybil, looking quite distressed.
"But now, misunderstand me not," pursued Lady Judith. "Love is not necessarily idolatry. When we love the creature more than the Creator—when, for instance, thou shalt care more to please thy lord than to please the Lord—then only is it idolatry. Therefore, I use the word tendency; I trust it is not more with thee.—Well, then, with Isabel"——