"
Again, though it ran counter to all her designs for the girl, the old
woman knew this was not the time to speak against the hopeless romance
that she still carried like a torch in the Night. And also (the
darkness had not yet swallowed her completely), she felt that her
daughter deserved this much.
"There was no sin. Naivety perhaps."
With this her daughter broke into wretched tears, and it was some time
before the woman could calm her enough to speak. She moved to sit
beside her on the bed; and so helpless and forlorn did Mary then
appear, that for a moment her mother forgot all else and slowly
brought to her breast the face that had suckled there so long ago.
"What is it child?" she said gently, stroking the soft hair that had
once been her own. "What is it hurting you so?"
"All this time..... I thought it was because..... After he was killed,
I went to my confessor. I told him everything, and he said---"
There was no need for her to finish. Too well did the other understand
the vindictive nature of men.
"He said that Michael was taken because you had committed incest: that
it was God's punishment for a grievous sin, and that it's your fault
he died.
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