She turned from one to another, and back again to the first speaker,--he
who had authority.
He said, "It is very rarely successful; it retards the course of your
penitence. It is an indulgence, and it may bring harm and not good but if
the meaning is generous and just, permission will be given, and you may
go."
Then all the strength of her nature rose in her. She thought of the child
forsaken, and of the dark world round her, where she would find so few
friends; and of the home shut up in which she had lived her young and
pleasant life; and of the thoughts that must rise in her heart, as though
she were forsaken and abandoned of God and man. Then Lady Mary turned to
the man who had authority. She said, "If he whom I saw to-day will give
me his blessing, I will go--" and they all pressed round her, weeping and
kissing her hands.
"He will not refuse his blessing," they said; "but the way is terrible,
and you are still weak. How can you encounter all the misery of it? He
commands no one to try that dark and dreadful way."
"I will try," Lady Mary said.