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Rh evicted, and when she and her poor children are driven out to cold and wandering, if she conforms her will to the will of God it is a noble act. But it is not she that ought to be thanked for it, but the bailiff who evicted her. But for the bailiff she would not have done that noble act. Don't you understand?"

"Oh, indeed, you are a sharp-witted man!" said the Black Man. "If you were suffering as much as I am suffering here, perhaps it would take some of your sharp wit from you."

"You have the widow's remedy for it," said Shiana.

"What remedy is that?" said the Black Man.

"To conform your will to the will of God; praise be to Him!" said Shiana.

"I would not do that if I were to be given the freedom of Heaven for it!" said the Black Man.

"Oh, is that so?" said Shiana. "By the law, you may have your choice. 'A man's will is his life, even if it consists in his sitting in water'—or, I meant to say, 'in fire.' But tell me this. Do you mean to say, to my very face, that I did not vex you by giving what I gave of your money to God's poor?"

"Not very much," said the Black Man, "and it is not worth talking of, compared with how you vexed me by an act of your own which had nothing to do with the money at all."

"1 don't remember any act I did that was better than what little alms I gave out of the money," said Shiana.

"I put an enemy in your way, and you did not yield to that enemy," said the Black Man.