"If I were one of God's angels, with a nature incapable of stain, and garments that never could be spotted, I would keep ever at your side, and try to lead you upward.

But I am a poor, lonely girl, whom God has set here in an evil world, and given her only a white robe, and bid her wear it back to Him, as white as when she put it on.

Your powerful magnetism would be too much for me.

The pure, white atmosphere, in which I try to discern what things are good and true, would be discolored.

And therefore, Miriam, before it is too late, I mean to put faith in this awful heartquake which warns me henceforth to avoid you." "Ah, this is hard! Ah, this is terrible!" murmured Miriam, dropping her forehead in her hands.