I think it is all stuff. When I married, they
said to me: 'May it please the Lord that your husband be good to you.' I
thought: If I had not been sensible enough to choose a good husband, it
would not help me much what should please the Lord. Later on they said:
'May it please the Lord to give you sons.' I had some, but they died
when they were little ones. Then I thought to myself: 'If my husband and
I do not do something in the matter, it won't be much use for the Lord
to be pleased to give them to us. Nature, too, has something to say to
it. (_Anche la natura e una piccola cosa_.) You have no idea, sir,
how we have suffered from priests here in the Papal State. Everyone had
to go to Confession, and as of course they did not wish to confess their
own sins, they confessed other people's,--and told lies, too,--and in
that way the priests knew everything. If the priest had heard anything
about a person, he or she would get a little ticket from him: 'Come to
me at such and such a time! 'Then, when the person went, he would say:
'Are you mad to live with such and such a person without being
married!'--and all the while he himself had a woman and a nest full of
children. Then he would say: 'I won't have you in my parish,' and he
would publish the poor thing's secret to the whole world.
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