“Perhaps—they are happier—out of the world, Virginia,” suggested Magda slowly.
“But my niece, who was in the sisterhood a year, was glad to come out again. Though, of course, she left her sins behind her, and that was good. It is always good to get rid of one’s sins, n’est-ce pas?”
“Get rid of your sins? But how can you?”
“If one does penance day and night, day and night, for a whole long year, one surely expiates them! And then”—with calm certainty—“of course one has got rid of them. They are wiped off the slate and one begins again. At least, it was so with my niece. For when she came out of the sisterhood, the man who had betrayed her married her, and they have three—no, four bebes now. So that it is evident le bon dieu was pleased with her penance and rewarded her accordingly.”
Magda repressed an inclination to smile at the naive simplicity of Virginie’s creed. Life would indeed be an easy affair if one could “get rid of one’s sins” on such an ingenuous principal of quid pro quo!
But Virginie came of French peasant stock, and to her untutored mind such a process of wiping the slate clean seemed extremely reasonable. She continued with enthusiasm:
“She but took the Vow of Penitence for a year. It is a rule of the sisterhood. If one has sinned greatly, one can take a vow of penitence for a year and expiate the sin. Some remain altogether and take the final vows. But my niece—no! She sinned and she paid. And then she came back into the world again. She is a good girl, my niece Suzette. Mademoiselle has enjoyed her omelet? Yes?”
Magda nodded.
“Yes, Virginie, I’ve enjoyed it. And I think your niece was certainly a brave fille. I’m glad she’s happy now.”
For long after Virginie had left her, Magda sat quietly thinking. The story of the old Frenchwoman’s niece had caught hold of her imagination. Like herself she had sinned, though differently. Within her own mind Magda wondered whether she or Suzette were in reality the greater sinner of the two. Suzette had at least given all, without thought of self, whereas she had only taken—taken with both hands, giving nothing in return.