'That could never be.'
'Yes. There are crimes whose consequences can never be undone. What then? Is he who did them shut out from all hope?'
'I am no casuist,' she said, vaguely troubled. 'But if no atonement were possible I still think——nay, I am sure—-a sincere and intense regret which is, after all, what we mean by repentance, must be accepted, must be enough.'
'Enough to efface it in the eyes of one who had never sinned?'
'Where is there such an one? I thought you spoke of heaven.'
'I spoke of earth. It is all we can be sure to have to do with; it is our one poor heritage.'
'I hope it is but an ante-chamber which we pass through, and fill with beautiful things, or befoul with dust and blood, at our own will.'
'Hardly at our own will. In your ante-chamber a capricious tyrant waits us all at birth. Some come in chained; some free.'
They were seated at her favourite garden-seat, where the great yews spread before the keep, and far down below the Szalrassee rippled away in shining silver and emerald hues, bearing the Holy Isle upon its waters, and parting the mountains as with a field of light. The impression which had pursued her once or twice before came to her now. Was there any error in his own life, any cruel, crooked twist of circumstance concealed from her? An exceeding tenderness and pity yearned in her towards him as the thought arose. Was he, with all his talent, power, pride, grace, and strength, conscious of fault or failure, weighted with any burden? It seemed impossible. Yet to her fine instinct, her accurate ear, there was in these generalities the more painful, the more passionate, tone of personal remorse. She might have spoken, might once more have said to him what she had once said, and invited him to place a fearless confidence in her affection; but she remembered Olga Brancka; she shrank from seeking an avowal which might be so painful to him and her alike.
At that moment the pretty figure of the Princess Ottilie appeared in the distance, a lace hood over her head, a broad red sunshade held above that, and Sabran rose to go forward and offer her his arm.