from Scent of Water, by Elizabeth Goudge

(my second-favorite passage from a book that's in my top 5 fiction best-reads)

The question came out so sharply and suddenly that I answered with the truth. I told him everything. It was the queerest thing that ever happened to me because I take such infinite trouble always to cover it all up. I hide it like a crime. And yet here I was laying it all out in front of him. I was like a criminal emptying his pockets. I took out everything. He was silent for a long time, rubbing his chin, and then he said, "You're afraid of it?"
   It seemed such a silly question and I spoke sharply I think when I said, "Of course I am, I'm terrified."
   "Why?" he asked. "If you lose your reason you lose it into the hands of God."

                                                                                                                           (c) 1963 by Elizabeth Goudge