And yet—it comes over me, though I do hate to think it!—suppose these ten days should be the last days of peace which we are to know!
"Holy Mother, how can you wait to know things?" I asked Lady Judith.
"How canst thou?" said she with a little laugh.
"Why, I must!" said I. "But as to doing it patiently!"——
"It is easier to wait patiently than impatiently, my child."
"O holy Mother!" cried I.
"It is," she gently persisted. "But that patience, Helena, is only to be had from God."
"But can you help longing to know?" said I.
"Rebelliously and feverishly thirsting to know, I can. But it is only in God's strength that I can do it. Certainly I cannot help feeling that I shall be relieved when His time is come. I should be more or less than woman, if I could."
"But how," said I, "do you keep yourself patient?"