"Beth!" cried Tonia, "What are you thinking! How could you?!" The girl threw up her arms and stood up. she anxiously paced back and forth in front of her companion, tossing her black hair into the wind.

"I love Him," said Beth calmly, with her teeth showing in a wide smile. "He has asked me, and I said yes... Is it a sin to possess so much love? Is it a sin to want to forever be with Him - alone."

"You sure would be alone: alone in prison! You're imprisoning yourself!" She sat down by Beth again, and, propped up on her knuckles quietly said, "Think of me. Think of your family. You are abandoning us forever. I, your best friend, will never be able to talk to your face again. You'll be locked up, forever! You might as well be dead! Your parents will never be able to touch you or to even talk to your face directly!" Tonia let girlish tears fall down her cheeks. "You'll be forever behind a wall and behind iron bars. Oh! Horrible!"

"I never said loving Him so intimately meant I wouldn't have to make sacrifices."

"'You and Him' that's all you think about! Your sacrifices!"

"I regret; it was selfish of me. It is true that my sacrifice of enclosure is not as hard as your sacrifice of being left behind." Beth pulled her friend up against her and put her ruddy red-brown head against the her friend's black. "But, I will be there to always pray for you. It is best that way. If I were to stay outside the walls, I would be of much less good to you than being inside the walls with Him. Oh, cheer, my good friend!" They both lifted theirs heads to meet each other's gaze. "It is not in sadness that I leave, but in jubilance! You, too, will marry and have children, perhaps not so numerous as mine own. For His children are mine. You will be my child, oh little one, I will never abandon you!"

"If it is His Will you go behind the walls, I guess I should start sharpening my pencils!"

They both laughed for several minutes and agreed to write everyday even if Beth could only write in the silence of her heart. And, they both promised to pray for each other every day. They had sat silently for some time when, finally, Beth said, "I think Carmel will keep the postman busy!"