"There will be nothing to prevent you."
"So that anything is good enough for those who are not tertiaries!" she cried, confronting him.
Her cheeks burned. Had there been any touch of spiritual arrogance in his tone?
"I think I shall not answer that," he said, after a pause.
They walked on—she blindly holding herself as far as possible from him; he, with the mingled ardour and maladroitness of his character, longing and not quite venturing to cut the whole coil, and silence all this mood in her, by some masterfulness of love.
Suddenly she paused—she stepped to him—she laid her fingers on his arms—bright tears shone in her eyes.
"You can't—you can't belong to that—when we are married?"
"To the Third Order? But, dear!—there is nothing in it that conflicts with married life! It was devised specially for persons living in the world. You would not have me give up what has been my help and salvation for ten years?"
He spoke with great emotion. She trembled and hid her face against him.
"Oh! I could not bear it!" she said. "Can't you realise how it would divide us? I should feel outside—a pariah. As it is, I seem to have nothing to do with half your life—there is a shut door between me and it."