is
voice were full of tears--"why do ye haggle in the market-place? Why
do ye lay up store of gold and silver? Why do ye chase the futile
shadows of earthly joy? This, this is the true ecstasy, to give
yourself up to God, all in all, to ask only to be the channel of His
holy will."

Helena's face was full of a grave wonder; for a moment an answering
light was reflected on it as though she yearned for the strange
raptures she could not understand.

"All this is sheer folly. Thy brethren hear thee now as little as they
will ever hear thee."

"I shall pray night and day that my lips may be touched with the
sacred fire."

"Love, too, is a sacred fire. Dost thou purpose to live without that?"
She drew nearer. Her breath stirred the black lock on his forehead. He
moved back a pace, thrilling.

"I shall have divine Love, Signora."

"Thou art bent on becoming a Dominican?"

"I am fixed."

"The cloister will content thee?"

"It will be Heaven."

"Ay, where there is no marrying nor giving in marriage. What
Samson-creed is this that pulls down the pillars of human society?"

"Nay, marriage is in the scheme. 'Tis the symbol of a diviner union.
But it is not for all men. It is not for those who symbolize divine
things otherwise, who typify to their fellow-men the flesh crucified,
the soul sublimed. It is not for priests."

"But thou art not a priest."

"'Tis a question of days. But were I even refused orders I should
still remain celibate."

"Still remain celibate! Wherefore?"

"Because mine own people are cut off from me. And were I to marry a
Christian, like so many Jewish converts, the power of my example would
be lost. They would say of me, as they say of them, that it was not
the light of Christ but a Christian maiden's eyes that dazzled and
drew. They are hard; they do not believe in the possibility of a true
conversion. Others have enriched themselves by apostasy, or, being
rich, have avoided impoverishing mulcts and taxes. But I have lost all
my patrimony, and I will accept nothing. That is why I refused thy
father's kind offices, the place in the Seal-office, or even the
humbler position of mace-bearer to his Holiness. When my brethren see,
moreover, that I force from them no pension nor moneys, not even a
white farthing, that I even preach to them without wage, verily for
the love of Heaven, as your idiom hath it, when they see that I live
pure and lonely, then they will listen to me. Perchance their