"Is the Spiritual," replied the Bishop, solemnly, with uplifted face.
"With that, there came over the Knight a sudden sense of compunction.
He began for the first time to see the matter as it must appear to the
Bishop and the nun. His own obstinate and determined self-seeking
shamed him.
"You have been very good to me, my lord," he said humbly. "You have
been most kind and most generous, when indeed you had just cause to be
angry."
The Bishop lowered his eyes from the rafters, and bent them in
questioning gaze upon Hugh d'Argent.
"Angry, my son? And wherefore should I be angry?"
"That I should have sought, and should still be seeking, to tempt the
Prioress to wrong-doing."
The Bishop's questioning gaze took on a brightness which almost became
the light of sublime contempt.
"_You_--tempt _her_?" he said. "Tempt her to wrong-doing! The man
lives not, who could succeed in that! She will not come to you unless
she knows it to be right to come, and believes it to be wrong to stay.
If I thought you were tempting her, think you I would stand aside and
watch the conflict? Nay! But I stand aside and wait while she--of
purer, clearer vision, and walking nearer Heaven than you or
I--discerns the right, and, choosing it, rejects the wrong. Should she
be satisfied that life with you is indeed God's will for her--and I
tell you honestly, it will take a miracle to bring this about--she will
come to you.
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