Am I then to be fettered to a passing whim for all eternity?
Does an instant's idle folly entail endless responsibility?
Do I merit punishment everlasting for a silly amourette that lasted no longer than the July moon?
Tell me, Loskiel, you who are called among us blameless and unstained, is there no hope for a guilty man to shrive himself and walk henceforward upright ?" "I can not answer you," I said dully.

"Nor do I know how, of such a business, a man may be shriven, or what should be his amends....

It all seems pitiful and sad to me--a matter perplexing, unhappy, and far beyond my solving....

I know it is the fashion of the times to regard such affairs lightly, making of them nothing....

Much I have heard, little learned, save that the old lessons seem to be the truest; the old laws the best.