But its a pretense, its artificial, Adelia protested. Love, honor, respect. When are they ever extended to everyday women? I doubt if that boy actually practices what hes singing. Its its a pleasant hypocrisy.Oh, I have a high regard for hypocrisy, the little nun said. It pays lip service to an ideal which must, therefore, exist. It recognizes that there is a Good. In its own way, it is a token of civilization. You dont find hypocrisy among the beasts of the field.What good does the Good do if it is not adhered to?That is what I have been wondering, Mother Edyve said calmly. And I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the early Christians wondered it, too, and perhaps that Eleanor, in her fashion, has made a start by setting a brick in a foundation on which, with Gods help, our daughters daughters can begin to build a new and better Jerusalem.Not in time for Emma, Adelia said.No.Perhaps, Adelia thought drearily, it was only a very old woman who could look hopefully on a single brick laid in a wasteland.
