The Shepherd laid both his hands on the bowed head of poor Umbrage, and telling her that he forgave her, he blessed her. Then he lifted her up and sat talking with her for a long time. Umbrage poured out to him in passionate relief the whole sad story and said at the end: “It was just as you said, my Lord. I refused to be shown the truth and I have brought myself into this impossible situation. My mother-in-law hates me, my husband no longer loves me, and they are both determined to get my child away from me.” She sobbed again heartbrokenly and then exclaimed: “I can’t stay with him any longer. I do not love him. I never loved him. And he forbids me to have any intercourse with you and with your friends. I am just a miserable prisoner here, and if I try to go free I must lose my child.”

“His child and yours too,” corrected the Shepherd gently.

She sobbed again and said nothing.

“Mercy was quite right,” continued the Shepherd slowly and clearly. “She told you that there is no way of undoing this thing which you chose to do of your own free will. You are married, and though you repent of it with tears there is no way of undoing what has been done.”

She cried out in anguish: “Then what am I to do? Is there no hope of escape? Must I stay here, the miserable slave of Resentment and Sullen until I die?”

“By no means,” said the Shepherd strongly and cheerily. “You cannot alter the fact of your marriage or escape from it, but you can be ‘more than conqueror’ in it, and you can change defeat into victory.”

“Be ‘more than conqueror’ while married to Resentment?” gasped Umbrage incredulously. “My Lord, what do you mean?”

“Yes, certainly,” said he. “Do you remember, Umbrage, that when I spoke to you last I invited you to go with me to the High Places?”

“Yes,” said she, gazing at him in bewilderment.

“Well, I ask you again now,” said he, smiling upon her most beautifully. “Will you start with me for the High Places now, Umbrage?”

“But,” gasped she, “you have just told me that I may not leave my husband even though I detest him.”

“Nothing can help you in this situation,” answered the Shepherd gently and gravely, “until you learn to love your husband and your mother-in-law. And that you can only learn by going to the High Places of love. You must learn to love them truly and to give yourself to them completely without any reserves, asking nothing from them in return.”