Neither persuasion nor exhortation availed to shake her resolution, and in despair Gillian referred the matter to Lady Arabella, hoping she might induce Magda to change her mind.
Lady Arabella accepted the news with unexpected composure.
“It is just what one might expect from the child of Hugh Vallincourt,” she said thoughtfully. “It’s the swing of the pendulum. There’s always been that tendency in the Vallincourts—the tendency towards atonement by some sort of violent self-immolation. They are invariably excessive—either excessively bad like the present man, Rupert, or excessively devout like Hugh and Catherine! By the way, the Sisters of Penitence is the community Catherine first joined. I wonder if she is there still? Probably she’s dead by now, though. I remember hearing some years ago that she was seriously ill—somewhere about the time of Hugh’s death. That’s the last I ever heard of her. I’ve been out of touch with the whole Vallincourt family for so many years now that I don’t know what has become of them.”
“You don’t mean to say that you’re going to let Magda do what she proposes?” exclaimed Gillian, in dismayed astonishment.
“There’s never much question of ‘letting’ Magda do things, is there?” retorted Lady Arabella. “If she’s made up her mind to be penitential—penitential she’ll be! I dare say it won’t do her any harm.”
“I don’t see how it can do her any good,” protested Gillian. “Magda isn’t cut out for a sisterhood.”
“That’s just why it may be good for her.”
“I don’t believe in mortification of the flesh and all that sort of thing, either,” continued Gillian obstinately.
“My dear, we must all work out our own salvation—each in his own way. Prayer and fasting would never be my method. But for some people it’s the only way. I believe it is for the Vallincourts. In any case, it’s only for a year. And a year is very little time out of life.”
Nevertheless, at Gillian’s urgent request, Lady Arabella made an effort to dissuade Magda from her intention.