Unerring instinct told him that her words were true.

He was a monk, accustomed to believe animal sin to be the deadliest and worst of all sins--indeed, 'the great offence' itself, beside which all others were comparatively venial: where there was physical purity, must not all other virtues follow in its wake?
All other failings were invisible under the dazzling veil of that great loveliness; and in his self-abasement he went on-- 'Oh, do not spurn me!--do not drive me away! I have neither friend, home, nor teacher.

I fled last night from the men of my own faith, maddened by bitter insult and injustice--disappointed and disgusted with their ferocity, narrowness, ignorance.

I dare not, I cannot, I will not return to the obscurity and the dulness of a Thebaid Laura.

I have a thousand doubts to solve, a thousand questions to ask, about that great ancient world of which I know nothing--of whose mysteries, they say, you alone possess the key! I am a Christian; but I thirst for knowledge....
I do not promise to believe you-I do not promise to obey you; but let me hear! Teach me what you know, that I may compare it with what I know....