But he only laughed the louder as he said, "'Tis a trade that never had to advertise for apprentices." "Cease thy levity; canst not be sober-minded? If thou must make music we have hundreds of noble hymns in our books." "They are not framed to my mood, but"--and now in truth he looked more serious and manlike, as I most admired him--"dost thou agree with our superintendent that marriage is a sinful state?" "Dost ask for mere curiosity, or hast found some foolish woman who careth for thee?" I asked with seeming ignorance. He flushed at this, and then said gently, the schemer, "Nay, but sometime I might see one foolish enough, as thou sayest, to love me and perchance I might commit in all ignorance the grievous sin of marriage." "I commend thy great thoughtfulness," said I, looking at him in a way that made him in turn look at me as though wondering whether I knew more than I cared to tell. "To relieve thy anxiety I shall tell thee, which I would not have proclaimed from the housetops, there being those who hold to stricter views, I do not regard marriage as sinful. The word of God sayeth not so. In truth it esteemeth marriage highly. We base our views of celibacy on what Paulus sayeth, thou rememberest, 'For I would that all men were even as I myself,' meaning unmarried." "But Paulus himself wrote that he spake this by permission and not of commandment." "True, and so say I, now that I am older and wiser. We practise celibacy, and praise it because we believe that, as good soldiers of the Lord, we can go better to battle than if we are impeded by wives and children." A long pause and then anxiously, as though much depended on my reply, he asked with a touch of reverence in his voice, "Wouldst think it wrong for any of our Sisters to marry?" "Our vows are binding only on our consciences. We compel no one to celibacy. Each follows his own will. Thou knowest many of the Brethren and Sisters who were married when they joined our order left us again to live together and no one said them 'nay,' but our single Sisters and Brethren have almost invariably remained with us." "If I were to marry one of the Sisterhood, wouldst thou condemn either of us?" he asked eagerly. "When thou'rt sure thou hast found one to break her vows for thee it were time to ask me that," I admonished him; and then, as I arose to return to my cell, I said smiling, not meaning it with malice, "thou knowest much may happen between sunrise and sunset."