What cunning devil had flung open this door, showing her all her heart's desire, merely that she should be called upon to slam it to in her own face?
A fierce anger blazed up in her brain.

Why should she listen?
Why had reason been given to us if we were not to use it--weigh good and evil in the balance and decide for ourselves where lay the nobler gain?
Were we to be led hither and thither like blind children?
What was right--what wrong, but what our own God-given judgment told us?
Was it wrong of the woman to perform this act of self-renunciation, yielding up all things to love?
No, it was great--heroic of her.

It would be her cross of victory, her crown.
If the gift were noble, so also it could not be ignoble to accept it.
To reject it would be to dishonour it.
She would accept it.

The wonder of it should cast out her doubts and fears.

She would seek to make herself worthy of it.