That makes her heart hurt. She can remember, as clearly as she can remember her first assignation, or clearer, being a ten-year-old orphan in Balm House whose solemn composure and studiousness came not from piety but from that same thought. I don't know what else to do.

"You could have refused to speak to me at all," she points out, "or retreated when the going grew hard. And you've done neither. I think that strength is yours, and yours alone."