human
Daughter, he said,
gpt
Father, without my work I have naught to live for. I have not the strength to leave it.
human
Then God help thee! and the prayers of all the pilgrims to the Troödista help thee! And of all who have tasted of thy bounty; and of all who have known thy care!
gpt
Unless, my Father, she interrupted painfully,
human
Is she not like her Mother, the Paléologue? the Lampadisti answered angrily.
gpt
Hath she not plotted murder and treachery to compass her ends? Aye--even a fratricide--because forsooth of the crime of the grace that her brother possessed? Is there a record of good deeds, that the people should wish her back?--Did _she_ strive to uphold the laws, or to know them?--To have her people taught and comforted?
human
Thou dost verily comfort me, my Father.
gpt
For that I am sent. The Holy Relic on the altar of the Troödista seemed to point me hither, with every Sacred Thorn. I could pray no prayers but for thee; I could hearken to no other tales of woe. My feet turned ever thither without my will: and thus I knew that thou hadst need of me!
human
I have somewhat to ask of thee, my Father.
gpt
Say on.
human
That thou wilt receive me into the Holy Sisterhood of St. Francis--as a lay sister; that if I find the world more weary than I can bear, I may be sure of a retreat which thou my faithful friend and spiritual Father will have prepared for me. So that the act of my admission may be known only to thee and me and the directors of the Chapter of St. Francis, and to the Holy Sisterhood, of which I shall be one--yet living in the world, so long as my duty shall call me.
gpt
Thou hast deserved it by thy constancy, he said.
human
And may the Holy Madonna be gracious to thee: and our blessed St. Francis sing to thy sorrowing soul sweet measures of content, by the voices of 'his brothers, the birds of the air.'