s did deny us any good thing that
was meet for us, and that have loved us and cared for us all, from the
day we were born unto this day--to go away from them with a strange
flatterer--nay, this passeth me by many a mile.

SELWICK HALL, JANUARY YE XVI.
This morrow, as I was sat a-work alone in the great chamber, come my
Lady _Stafford_, with her broidery in her hand, and sat her down beside
me. And ere many minutes were passed, saith she--

"_Helen_, I have been to see _Blanche_."

"And is she still so hard, my Lady?" said I.

"I should not call her mood hard," saith she. "I think she is very,
very sorry, and would fain not have us see it. But," she paused a
moment, and then went on, "it is the worldly sorrow which causeth
death."

"Your Ladyship would say?"

"She is right sorry for my Lady _Everett_, for the great lady she
thought to have been, and the grand life she looked to lead: but for
_Blanche Lewthwaite_ as a sinner before God, methinks she is not sorry
at all."

"'Tis a sad case," said I.

My Lady _Stafford_ gave me no answer, and when I looked up at her, I saw
her dark eyes fastened on the white clouds which were floating softly
across the blue, and her eyes so full that they all-to [nearly] ran
o'er.

"_Helen_," she saith, "hast thou any idea what is sin?"

"Truly, Madam, I think so," I made answer.

"I marvel," she pursueth, "if there ever were man or woman yet, that
could see it as God seeth it. It may be that unto Him all the evil that
_Blanche_ hath done--and 'tis an evil with many sides to it--is a lesser
thing than the pride and unbelief which will not give her leave to own
that she hath done it. And for what others have done--"

All suddenly, her Ladyship brake off, and hiding her face in her
kerchief, she brake into such a passion of weeping tears as methought I
had scarce seen in any woman aforetime.

"O my God, my God!" she sobbeth through her tears, "how true is it that
`man knows the beginnings of sin, but who boundeth the issues thereof!'"
[Note 2.]

I felt that my Lady's trouble, the cause whereof was unknown to me, lay
far beyond any words, specially of me: and I could but keep respectful
silence till she grew calm. When so were, quoth she--

"Dost marvel at my tears, _Helen_?"

"In no wise, Madam," said I: "for I reckoned there were some cause for
them, beyond my weak sight."

"Cause!" saith she--"ay, _Helen_, cause more th