'I think I should be content,' said Decius, 'to love and praise Him.
Yet that meseems is no less hard.'
'No less,' was the reply. 'For, without knowledge, love and praise
are vain.'
But Decius' thought had another meaning.
CHAPTER XIV
SILVIA'S DREAM
It was the Paschal season, and Basil, careless at most times of
religious observances, did not neglect this supreme solemnity of his
faith. On Passion Day he fasted and received the Eucharist, Decius
doing the like, though with a half-smiling dreaminess which
contrasted with the other's troubled devotion. Since the death of
Petronilla, Basil had known moments of awe-stricken wonder or of
gloomy fear such as never before had visited him; for he entertained
no doubt that his imprecation had brought upon Petronilla her
dreadful doom, and this was a thought which had power to break his
rest. Neither to Marcian nor to Decius did he speak of it in plain
terms, merely hinting his belief that the cruel and treacherous
woman had provoked divine anger.
But the inclination to piety which resulted from such brooding was
in some measure counteracted by his hostile feeling towards all the
Church.
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