As we ride out into the sunshine, I shall grow used to the great world once more; and you will have patience and will teach me things I have perhaps forgot." She hesitated; half put out her hands; but his not meeting them, folded them on her breast.
"Hugh, it seems hard that I should clip your splendid wings; but--oh, Hugh! Think you the heart of a nun can ever become again as the heart of other women ?" "Heaven forbid!" said the Knight, fervently, thinking of Eleanor and Alfrida.
And, as leaving the arbour they walked together over the lawn, she smiled, remembering, how that morning the Bishop had answered the same question in precisely the same words.

Whatever Father Gervaise might have said, the Bishop and the Knight were agreed! Yet she wished, somewhat wistfully, that this most dear and loyal Knight had taken her hands when she held them out.
She would have liked to feel the strong clasp of his upon them.
Possibly our Lady, who knoweth the heart of a woman, had guided the Knight in this matter also..