her, our Lord Christ is He. Yet the folk say
alway, that our Lady doth entreat our Lord for to hear our prayers."

"Child!" asked the Black Friar, "did Christ die for thee against His
will?"

"I would humbly think, not so, Father," answered Agnes meekly, "sith He
needed not to have so done at all without it were His good pleasure."

"Right!" was the rejoinder. "It was by reason that God the Father loved
thee, that He gave Christ to die for thee; it was by reason that Christ
loved thee, that He bare for thee the pain and shame of the bitter
cross. Tell me, is there in this world any that thou lovest?"

Agnes hesitated. It seemed something new and strange to think that she
could love, or could be loved, since the death of her mother. But she
thought, and said, that she loved little Will Flint.

"Tell me, then," pursued her teacher, "if this little lad were in some
sore trouble, and that thou couldst quickly ease him thereof, should he
need for to run home and fetch his mother to entreat thee?"

"Surely, nay!" responded Agnes. "I would do the same incontinent
[immediately], of mine own compassion, and the more if he should ask it.
I would never tarry for his mother!"

"My daughter, is thy love so much better than His that died for us?
Should Christ tarry till His mother pray Him to be thine help, when of
Himself He loveth thee?"

"But, Father--I pray you pardon me if I speak foolishly, in mine
unwisdom--how then needeth a mediator at all, if God the Father be so
loving unto men?"

"God is a King, whose law thou hast broken. He is all perfect;
therefore must His justice be perfect, no less than His mercy. A
lawgiver that were all justice should be a scourge unto men; but a
lawgiver that were all mercy should be as good as no law. God hath
appointed His Son to be thy Surety; and by reason that He is thy Surety,
He is become thine Advocate. He hath said in His Word that the Son is
the Advocate with the Father; but of an advocate with the Son never a
word saith He. Wherefore God saw fit to appoint a Mediator, He knoweth,
not I. I am content that having thus decreed, He hath Himself provided
the same."

Agnes looked up, after a moment's thought, with an expression of fear
and trouble on her white face.

"But what then of our Lady?"

"Wherefore should there be aught beyond what God hath told us?" replied
Friar Laurence. "She was `highly favoured' and `blessed among women,'
in that she was the mother o