"I don't understand you, Agatha. You say it isn't you; you say you're only a connecting link; that you do nothing; that the Power that does it is inexhaustible; that there's nothing it can't do, nothing that it won't do for us, and yet you go and cut yourself off from it—deliberately—from the thing you believe to be divine."
"I haven't cut myself off from it."
"You've cut Harding off," said Milly. "If you refuse to hold him."
"That wouldn't cut him off—from It. But Milly, holding him was bad; it wasn't safe."
"It saved him."
"All the same, Milly, it wasn't safe. The thing itself isn't."
"The Power? The divine thing?"
"Yes. It's divine and it's—it's terrible. It does terrible things to us."
"How could it? If it's divine, wouldn't it be compassionate? Do you suppose it's less compassionate than—you are? Why, Agatha, when it's goodness and purity itself——?"
"Goodness and purity are terrible. We don't understand it. It's got its own laws. What you call prayer's all right—it would be safe, I mean—I suppose it might get answered anyway, however we fell short. But this—this is different. It's the highest, Milly; and if you rush in and make for the highest, can't you see, oh, can't you see how it might break you? Can't you see what it requires of you? Absolute purity. I told you, Milly. You have to be crystal to it—crystal without a flaw."