'My daughter,' he said simply, 'I can speak no other language.'
There was a pause. Then he resumed: 'But consider it for a moment from another point of view. You say that for yourself you have renounced the expectation of happiness. What, then, do you desire? Merely the pain, the humiliation of others? But is that an end that any man or woman may lawfully pursue—Pagan or Christian? It was not a Christian who said, "Men exist for the sake of one another." Yet when two other human beings—your friends—have innocently—unwittingly—done you a wrong—'
She shook her head silently.
The priest observed her.
'One at least, you said, was kind and good—showed you a compassionate spirit—and intended you no harm. Yet you will punish her—for the sake of your own pride. And she is young. You who are older, and better able to control passion, ought you not to feel towards her as a tender elder sister—a mother—rather than a rival?'
He spoke with a calm and even power, the protesting force of his own soul mounting all the time like a tide.
Eleanor rose again in revolt.
'It is no use,' she said despairingly. 'Do you understand, Father, what I said to you at first?—that I have probably not many months—a year perhaps—to live? And that to give these two to each other would embitter all my last days and hours—would make it impossible for me to believe, to hope, anything?'
'No, no, poor soul!' he said, deeply moved. 'It would be with you as with St. John: "Now we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."'
She shrugged her shoulders.