"Behold we are the faithless and unregenerate handmaids who have served thee, and women like unto thee, bringing desolation unto thy larders, and gray hairs among the braids with which nature hath crowned thee.
"Yea, verily, by reason of our misdemeanors lift we the voice of lamentation in a land that knoweth not comfort."
Now, the woman who dreamed, being full of amazement, replied anon, and these were the words that fell from her lips:
"Sayest thou so? And dwellest thou and thy sisters in Hades by reason of the evil thou hast wrought?"
"Nay, not forever," replied she who had spoken. "We remain but for a season, that our remorse may cleanse our record before we go hence to sit with the blessed ones in glory.
"Not from everlasting unto everlasting is the duration of the penalty we pay for what we have done unto thee, else were there no peace between the stars by reason of our torment and our tears."
And the woman who dreamed beheld many whose fame yet lingered within the shadows of her home.
There was Ann, the fumble-witted, who piled the backyard high with broken china, yet stayed not her hand when rebuked therefor.
There was Sarah, the high-headed, who refused to clean the paint because she had dwelt long in the tents of such as hired the housecleaning done by other hands, that the labors of the handmaid might be few;
Yea, verily, with such as believed that Sarah and her ilk might have time wherein to be merry rather than toil.