"That will never do, Isabel.

I have had the holy man closeted with me already, insisting on the sanity of her words, and urging me to resign the unbeliever at once to the tender mercy of the church.

All must depend on thee." "On me ?" repeated Isabella, in a tone of surprised yet anxious inquiry.
"On thee, love.

Thy perfect humility is ignorant of the fact--yet it is nevertheless perfectly true--that thou art reverenced, well nigh canonized, by the holy church; and thy words will have weight when mine would be light as air.

Refuse the holy fathers all access to her; say she is unfitted to encounter them; that she is ill; nay, mad, if thou wilt.