"
"She will needs enter religion, poor child," said Gyda; "and what wonder?"
"I have chosen the better part, and it shall not be taken from me."
"Taken! taken! Hark to her! She means to mock me, the proud nun, with that
same 'taken.'"
"God forbid, mother!"
"Then why say taken, to me from whom all is taken?--husband, sons, wealth,
land, renown, power,--power which I loved, wretch that I was, as well as
husband and as sons? Ah God! the girl is right. Better to rot in the
convent, than writhe in the world. Better never to have had, than to have
had and lost."
"Amen!" said Gunhilda. "'Blessed are the barren, and they that never gave
suck,' saith the Lord."
"No! Not so!" cried Torfrida. "Better, Countess, to have had and lost,
than never to have had at all. The glutton was right, swine as he was,
when he said that not even Heaven could take from him the dinners he had
eaten. How much more we, if we say, not even Heaven can take from us the
love wherewith we have loved. Will not our souls be richer thereby,
through all eternity?"
"In Purgatory?" asked Gunhilda.
"In Purgatory, or where else you will. I love my love; and though my love
prove false, he has been true; though he trample me under foot, he has
held me in his bosom; though he kill me, he has lived for me.
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