pinnacle of holiness and
misery not to be reached by ordinary men and women. The virtues of
those self-denying people who sacrificed themselves by adopting it were
supposed to be paid into an ecclesiastical treasury, and to form a kind
of set-off against the every-day shortcomings of inferior married folks.
Therefore Aliz expressed her gratitude for the prospect, as affording
her an extra opportunity of doing her duty by proxy.

Derette was in advance of her age.

"But I am not sacrificing myself," she said. "I am pleasing myself. I
should not like to be a wife."

"Oh, what a saintly creature you must be!" cried Aliz, clasping her
hands in admiration. "That you can _prefer_ a holy life! It is given
to few indeed to attain that height."

"But the holy life does not consist in dwelling in one chamber,"
suggested Gerhardt, "nor in refraining from matrimony. He that dwelleth
in God, in the secret place of the Most High--this is the man that is
holy."

"It would be well for you, Gerard, and your friends," observed Aliz
freezingly, "not to be quite so ready in offering your strange fancies
on religious topics. Are you aware that the priests of the city have
sent up a memorial concerning you to my Lord the Bishop, and that it has
been laid before King Henry?"

The strawberry which Gerhardt's tool was just then rounding was not
quite so perfect a round as its neighbours. He laid the tool down, and
the hand which held the carving trembled slightly.

"No, I did not know it," he said in a low voice. "I thank you for the
warning."

"I fear there may be some penance inflicted on you," resumed Aliz, not
unkindly. "The wisest course for you would be at once to submit, and
not even to attempt any excuse."

Gerhardt looked up--a look which struck all who saw it. There was in it
a little surface trouble, but under that a look of such perfect peace
and sweet acceptance of the Divine will, as they had never before
beheld.

"There will be no penance laid on me," he said, "that my Father will not
help me to bear. I have only to take the next step, whether it lead
into the home at Bethany or the judgment-hall of Pilate. The Garden of
God lies beyond them both."

Aliz looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign tongue.

"Gerard," she said, "I do hope you have no foolish ideas of braving out
the censure of the Bishop. Such action would not only be sin, but it
would be the worst policy imaginable. Holy Church i