son of her
grandfather's brother, Sir John de Mortimer, who died young in the
tilt-yard [Note 2]. It is strange, passing strange, that he and
Margaret should have been drawn to one another--he the nephew, and she
the daughter, of men who were deadly enemies. From what Joan saith, I
can gather that this grandfather of hers must have been a very evil man
in many ways. I love not to hear of evil things and men, and I do
somewhat check her when she speaks on that head. Was it not for eating
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that our first fathers were
turned out of Paradise? Yet the Psalmist speaks of God as "He that
teacheth man knowledge." I will ask Father Mortimer to explain it when
I confess.

The time is not far off now when my child Joan must leave us, and I
shrink from it as it draws near. I would either that she were one of
us, or that I could go back to the world. Yet neither can be, seeing
she is wedded wife and mother: and for me, is not this the very carnal
affection which religious persons are bidden to root out of their
hearts? Yet the Apostle Saint John saith we are to love our brethren.
How can I do both? Is it lawful to love, only so long as we love not
one above another? But our Lord Himself had His beloved disciple: and
surely one's own mother must ever be more to her daughter than some
other woman's mother? This also I will ask Father Mortimer.

Lack-a-day! this world is full of puzzles, or rather it is this life. I
would one might see the way a little clearer--might have, as it were, a
thread put into one's hand to guide one out of the labyrinth, like that
old Grecian story which we teach the children. Some folks seem to lose
their way easier than others; and some scarcely seem to behold any
labyrinth at all--they walk right through those matters which are walls
and hedges to others, and look as though they never perceived that any
such things were there. Is it because of recklessness of right, or of
single-heartedness and sincerity?

There are three matters to lay before Father Mortimer. I shall think
long till the time come; and I hope he will be patient with me.

So soon as I stepped forth of my cell this morrow, I was aware of a kind
of soft sobbing at no great distance. I went towards it, and as I
turned the corner of the corridor, I came on a young novice, by name
Denise, who sat on the ground with a pail before her, and a flannel and
piece of soap on one side of it.