She turned upon him with an effort, and said that her thoughts, now or at any time, were folly and nonsense, and that the consciousness of right-doing was the only reward any public man had a right to expect.
"And yet you are a hard critic, Mrs.Lee.If your thoughts are what you say, your words are not.

You judge with the judgment of abstract principles, and you wield the bolts of divine justice.

You look on and condemn, but you refuse to acquit.

When I come to you on the verge of what is likely to be the fatal plunge of my life, and ask you only for some clue to the moral principle that ought to guide me, you look on and say that virtue is its own reward.

And you do not even say where virtue lies." "I confess my sins," said Madeleine, meekly and despondently; "life is more complicated than I thought." "I shall be guided by your advice," said Ratcliffe; "I shall walk into that den of wild beasts, since you think I ought.