She's got the experience of all Nature behind her,
from the poultry-yard to the House of Lords. You'll find that the Ten
Commandments are rigidly enforced among the cocks and hens. If a member of
the zenana breaks bounds there, she rues it. How else do you suppose this
world is to be peopled? Read the history of marriage, my dear. You'll find
that the more primitive your man the more complicated his marriage laws.
Why, bless my soul, I don't need the Church to tell me that I mustn't run
away with a married man. I can learn that from the pigeons in the piazza
at Venice. But I suppose I'm an old pagan. Now, you run away to your
priest and make a clean breast of it."
Perhaps Lady Maria was fanciful, but she put down this return to the
Church's knees to the fact that Mr. Worthington had gone upon his. "The
child finds that she's a valuable article," she said to herself; "so she
locks herself up in the cupboard, like the best china." Sanchia's
resolution persisted, and enthusiasm followed its growth. She frequented
the churches early in the mornings, and one fine day presented herself in
the vestry of one of them. Upon her knees, but with unbent head and eyes
fixed steadily to the grille, she rehearsed her tale from the beginning,
neither faltering nor losing countenance.
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