And no countess or lady of high degree could have welcomed a long-lost earl home more joyfully than the tired little washerwoman had welcomed the erring husband of her youth.
Well, hardly ever, for we must confess that at rare intervals his besetting sin overcame his prudence, and he proved himself an erring, human boy.
There was no home, no help for the erring; even those who pitied were constrained to hardness.
To have taken Maggie by the hand and said, "I will not believe unproved evil of you; my lips shall not utter it; my ears shall be closed against it; I, too, am an erring mortal, liable to stumble, apt to come short of my most earnest efforts; your lot has been harder than mine, your temptation greater; let us help each other to stand and walk without more falling,"—to have done this would have demanded courage, deep pity, self-knowledge, generous trust; would have demanded a mind that tasted no
The Good Wife was a fictionalized look at what happens to a political wife after she's forced to "assume the position", between podium and flag, as her erring spouse confesses his sins to the cameras.
Oh, trust for once no erring guide!
"Holy, loving, glorious forever shalt thou be, O erring human spirit!
