104
SHIANA
Shiana if she told it to Hannah—especially as Hannah already knew Mary's own secret.
Abbie.—Tell me, Peg. Surely the priest did not know Shiana's secret.
Peg.—Who said he did?
Abbie.—Why, one would imagine, by the way he spoke, that he knew as much about it as the barefooted woman did.
Peg.—How so?
Abbie.—The priest said Shiana was trampling down his own heart for the Saviour's sake, and I think the barefooted woman said the same words when he saw her on the mountain. How could they say the same thing unless they both knew the same secret?
Peg.—I dare say the woman knew the secret. She was one of the three to whom he gave the alms for the Saviour's sake, and she was not an earthly woman. With the priest it was different. He had no knowledge of the secret, and he had no means of getting any such knowledge.
Abbie.—Then what made him say the same thing?
Peg.—I really don't know, Abbie, what made him say the same thing. When I first heard the story myself, I didn't ask that question. What I thought in my own mind was that the priest supposed that Shiana was married already, secretly.
Kate.—Why, what else? Isn't that what anybody would think?
Abbie.—But then, why should the priest praise him for that? Great credit to him, indeed, for not marrying a woman when he was married already!
