an thou wist. Dost know
that this _Leonard Norris_--the man that hath wrought all this
mischief--and more beside than thou or I can tell--is my brother, of the
father's side?"

"Madam!" cried I in amaze.

"Ay," saith she sorrowfully: "and that is not all, _Helen_, by very
much. For our father was just such an other: and not only are the sins,
but the leanings and temptations of the fathers, visited upon the
children. And I thought, _Helen_, beyond that--of a quiet grave in
unconsecrate ground, wherein, now nigh fifty years agone, they laid one
that had not sinned against the light like to _Blanche Lewthwaite_, yet
to whom the world was harder than it is like to be to her. She was
lawfully wed, _Helen_, but she stood pledged to convent vows, and the
Church cursed her and flung her forth as a loathsome thing. Her life
for twelve years thereafter was a daily dying, whereto death came at
last as a hope and a mercy. I reckon the angels drew not their white
robes aside, lest her soiled feet should brush them as she passed up to
the Judgment Bar. And methinks her sentence from the Judge should be no
worser than one He gave in the days of His flesh--`Thy sins be forgiven
thee: go in peace.' The Church cast her out, but not the Cross. There
was no room for her in the churchyard: but methinks there was enough in
the Sepulchre on _Golgotha_!"

Oh, but how sorry I felt for this poor soul! and I saw she was one whom
her Ladyship had loved well.

"There was a time, _Helen_," she went on, "when it seemed to me
uttermost misery that no prayers should be permitted for her soul.
Think thou with what comfort I found in God's Word that none were needed
for her. Ah, these _Papists_ will tell you of the happiness of their
priests' fatherly care, and the sweetness of absolution: but they tell
you not of the agony of despair to them to whom absolution is denied,
and for whom the Church and the priest have no words save curses. I
have seen it, _Helen_. Well for them whom it drives straight to Him
that is high above all Churches, and who hath mercy on whom He will have
mercy. Praise be to His holy name, that the furthest bounds of men's
forbearance touch not the `uttermost' of God."

When my Lady thus spake, it came upon my mind all of a sudden, to ask at
her somewhat the which had troubled me of long time. I marvel wherefore
it should be, that it doth alway seem easier to carry one's knots and
griefs unto them that be not th