Summary

A letter arrives from Yvette. She announces joyfully that she has been baptized into the Church and has begun study to become a nun. She delights in the depth of her belief. She finds herself under the spiritual guidance of Bishop Oscar who guides her, “hand on her elbow,” as she travels “through the dangerous valleys of doubt and sin” (118). She quotes The Imitation of Christ, a 14th century meditation written by Catholic mystic Thomas á Kempis, to explain that she is not growing “overly attached” to the Bishop, his “long powerful hands…and his sunburnt nose” (117). Her love for God, she tells Yvonne, is manifested in her admiration for the Bishop. She shares a passage from The Imitation of Christ. “Enlarge Thou me in love, that I may learn to taste with the innermost mouth of my heart how sweet it is to...