He knew her story, so that there was nothing to explain.
'Is it wrong to love him still ?' she asked.
But Monsignor Ippolito did not speak until his silence had lasted so long that Angela was a little frightened; not that he had any real doubt as to her intention, but because it was his duty to examine such a case of conscience in all its aspects.
'What does your own instinct tell you ?' he asked at last.
'That it will not be wrong,' Angela answered with conviction.

'But I may be mistaken.

That is why I come to you for advice.' Again the churchman mused in silence for a while.
'I will tell you what I think,' he said, when he had made up his mind.
'There is a condition, which depends only on yourself, and of which you are the only judge.

You ask my advice, but I can only show you how to ask it of your own heart.

If your love for the man who is gone looks forward, prays and hopes, it will help you; if it looks back with tears for what might have been and with longing for what can never be, it will hinder you.