Maurice began to be irritated. He felt that he was being treated with
too high a hand.
"Have I no rights as a man?" demanded he warmly.
The other sighed once more, and a look of genuine pain came into his
face.
"My son," he said with a gentleness which touched Maurice in spite of
himself, "when you gave yourself to the church, did you keep back part
of the price? Was not your gift all you were and all you might
possess?"
Maurice was silent. He could not for shame answer, that he did not then
know that he had so much to give, and he realized too that this would
then have made no difference. He felt as if he were now being held to a
pledge which he had never meant to make, yet he could not see what
reply there was to the words of the Superior. He cast down his eyes,
but he said in his heart that he would not yield his claim; that the
demand was unjust.
"I have for some time," Father Frontford went on, "in fact ever since
your return, seen with pain that your heart is no longer single to the
good of the church. An earthly passion has eaten into your soul. Your
confessions are evidently attempts to satisfy your own conscience by
telling as little as possible of the doubts which you have been
harboring in your heart.
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