Helen Quiston stopped. That last was the final sanction. The Guardian knew, when he chose John Morning. It was the one thought she had hardly dared formulate for him, and which she had awaited ardently during the late weeks.
“He means that a woman can go, too!” she cried, trembling, forgetful even of Betty Berry; “he is on the path—higher, higher—and yet, he says that women, too, can go that way alone——”
Betty Berry frowned. “What does he mean by going alone—about a man and a woman going alone?” She was suffering to understand, angry that the other understood.
“He says that the woman may also go alone to that Eminence! No man—no human man—has ever said that before. Men think of men passing upward. People caught in their desires have forever lied to themselves, trying to believe that man and woman can go together.... He says here——” her eye darted on to read:
“‘Men and women gain their strength to reach that Eminence by being alone—by loving alone!’ You taught him that.... Don’t you see, dearest, it is the beginning of his real message? You gave it to him—and what a message it is for you and for—even for me——”
“But woman is the serpent,” Betty Berry muttered.
Helen arose to turn on a wall light. Her hand fumbled. Her eyes could not be brought down from that lofty plateau. A strange peace had come into the loneliness of her life. She wanted to tell it everywhere—to Nuns of the World.... It had been a man’s world so long—that this thought had never come. Always in the world’s thought and art—the flesh of woman had kept her down in the dusks and valleys. Sons climbed; lovers left their maids to climb ... but only the Gods knew all the time that daughters could go.
Betty was silent. It had become the habit of her life not to speak when the mists thickened.... The picture of Dante and Beatrice was in the light. Helen pointed to it:
“Who would think of saying that Beatrice, who was the Way—did not share the vision and the consciousness?” she asked softly.
Betty shut her eyes. The other returned with eager love and sat down at her knees. “And now I will read the last. Just think how clearly he sees: