And yet, Madonna, the things you tell me with such assurance make a mock of everything I have ever learnt." Even I, lad as I was, perceived the bitter irony in which he spoke.

Not so she.

I vow she flushed under what she accounted his praise of her wisdom and divine revelation; for vanity is the last human weakness to be discarded.

Then she seemed to recollect herself.

She bowed her head very reverently.
"It is God's grace that reveals to me the truth," she said.
He fell back a step in his amazement at having been so thoroughly misunderstood.