'But this case is very different, or rather the difference lies in the heroine of the possible drama.'
'You mean—'
'That Maria Ferrès is a turris eburnea.'
'And I am now a vas spirituale.'
'Ah yes, I had forgotten that you had, at last, found the Truth and the Way—"'The glad soul laughs because its loves have fled—'"
'What—you are quoting my verses?'
'I know them by heart.'
'How sweet of you!'
'However, I confess, my dear cousin, that your "fair white woman" holding the Host in her pure hands seems to me a trifle suspicious. She has, to my mind, too much of the air of a hollow shape, a robe without a body inside it, at the mercy of whatever soul, be it angel or demon, that chooses to enter it and offer you the communion.
'But this is sacrilege—rank sacrilege!'