"There never was any body so precise as Father Bruno! I would rather ask questions of Father Nicholas, ten times over." "Well, I don't like asking questions of Father Nicholas," responded Doucebelle, "because he never answers them. He never goes down to the bottom of things." "_Ha, chetife_!" cried Eva. "Dost thou want to get to the bottom of things? That is just why I like Father Nicholas, because he never bothers one with reasons and distinctions. It is only, `Yes, thou mayest do so,' or `No, do not do that,'--and then I am satisfied. Now, Father Bruno will persist in explaining why I am not to do it, and that sometimes makes me want to do it all the more. It seems to leave it in one's own hands." Beatrice broke into a laugh. "Why, Eva, thou wouldst rather be a chair to be moved about, than a woman to be able to go at pleasure." "I would rather have a distinct order," said Eva, a little scornfully. "`Do,' or `Don't,' I can understand. But, `Saint Paul says this,' or `Saint John says that,' and to have to make up one's own mind,--I detest it." "And I should detest the opposite." "I am afraid, Beatrice, thou art greatly wanting in the virtue of holy obedience. But of course one can make allowances for thine unhappy education." Eva had occasion to leave the room at the conclusion of this unflattering speech: and Beatrice indulged in a long laugh. "Well, what I am afraid of," she said to Margaret and Doucebelle, "is that Eva is rather wanting in the virtue of common-sense. But whether I am to lay that on her education, I do not know." There was no answer: but the thoughts of the hearers were almost opposites. Margaret considered Beatrice rash and self-satisfied. Doucebelle thought heartily with her, and only wished that she had as much courage to say so. CHAPTER TWELVE. WHAT IS LOVE? "She only said, `My life is dreary, He cometh not,' she said: She said, `I am aweary, weary, I would that I were dead!'" _Tennyson_. It was fortunate for Bruno de Malpas that he had a friend in Bishop Grosteste, whose large heart and clear brain were readily interested in his wish to return from regular to secular orders. He smoothed the path considerably, and promised him a benefice in his diocese if the dispensation could be obtained. But the last was a lengthy process, and some months passed away before the answer could be received from Rome.