Yet even then I was not entirely without hope.

Heaven itself, she said, could not undo that which I had done; and she also said that if I forgave myself, Heaven would say no word, nor would she.

That is my philosophy still: prayers, austerities, good works--they avail nothing, and there is no intercession, and outside of the soul there is no forgiveness in heaven or earth for sin.

Nevertheless there is a way, which every soul can find out for itself--even the most rebellious, the most darkened with crime and tormented by remorse.

In that way I have walked; and, self-forgiven and self-absolved, I know that if she were to return once more and appear to me--even here where her ashes are--I know that her divine eyes would no longer refuse to look into mine, since the sorrow which seemed eternal and would have slain me to see would not now be in them..