Her very aspect proved that she was blameless , so far as mortal could be so , in respect to God and man , while the enthusiast , in her robe of sackcloth and girdle of knotted cord , had as evidently violated the duties of the present life and the future by fixing her attention wholly on the latter . The two females , as they held each a hand of Ilbrahim , formed a practical allegory : it was rational piety and unbridled fanaticism contending for the empire of a young heart . `` Thou art not of our people , '' said the Quaker , mournfully . `` No , we are not of your people , '' replied Dorothy , with mildness , `` but we are Christians looking upward to the same heaven with you . Doubt not that your boy shall meet you there , if there be a blessing on our tender and prayerful guidance of him . Thither , I trust , my own children have gone before me , for I also have been a mother . I am no longer so , '' she added , in a faltering tone , `` and your son will have all my care . '' `` But will ye lead him in the path which his parents have trodden ? '' demanded the Quaker . `` Can ye teach him the enlightened faith which his father has died for , and for which I -- even I -- am soon to become an unworthy martyr ? The boy has been baptized in blood ; will ye keep the mark fresh and ruddy upon his forehead ? '' `` I will not deceive you , '' answered Dorothy . `` If your child become our child , we must breed him up in the instruction which Heaven has imparted to us ; we must pray for him the prayers of our own faith ; we must do toward him according to the dictates of our own consciences , and not of yours . Were we to act otherwise , we should abuse your trust , even in complying with your wishes . '' The mother looked down upon her boy with a troubled countenance , and then turned her eyes upward to heaven . She seemed to pray internally , and the contention of her soul was evident . `` Friend , '' she said , at length , to Dorothy , `` I doubt not that my son shall receive all earthly tenderness at thy hands . Nay , I will believe that even thy imperfect lights may guide him to a better world , for surely thou art on the path thither . But thou hast spoken of a husband . Doth he stand here among this multitude of people ?
Let him come forth , for I must know XXXXX whom I commit this most precious trust . ''
If among as at before for of on to upon