But I did not. And I did not this morning, when you
proposed our confessing our faults on the landing--the sinner that I
was! But I must, now I see you sitting there so solemnly. I wonder
if you will forgive me?"
"O yes! I am sure that--"
"Well, I hope so. But wait a minute. You don't know. To begin at
the beginning. Though I imagine my poor father fears that I am one
of the eternally lost for my doctrines, I am of course, a believer in
good morals, Tess, as much as you. I used to wish to be a teacher of
men, and it was a great disappointment to me when I found I could not
enter the Church. I admired spotlessness, even though I could lay no
claim to it, and hated impurity, as I hope I do now. Whatever one
may think of plenary inspiration, one must heartily subscribe to
these words of Paul: 'Be thou an example--in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.' It is the only
safeguard for us poor human beings. '_Integer vitae_,' says a Roman
poet, who is strange company for St Paul--
"The man of upright life, from frailties free,
Stands not in need of Moorish spear or bow.
"Well, a certain place is paved with good intentions, and having felt
all that so strongly, you will see what a terrible remorse it bred
in me when, in the midst of my fine aims for other people, I myself
fell.
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