She had an uneasy feeling that it was rather sinful to set one's heart so intensely on any human creature as she had set hers on Anne, and perhaps she performed a sort of unconscious penance for this by being stricter and more critical than if the girl had been less dear to her.
I'd do penance for being wicked that way.
Churchgoers who attend confession are often asked to repeat the prayer as penance for sins.
The idea is that you have to do a penance almost, for years.
think not my penance deficient!
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) But penance need not be paid in suffering.
This only we may say, that it cost us each our right eye, and has imposed upon us our nightly penance.
Ah, if thou couldst but tell me how I can have offended him, that I might do penance, and thenmy heart also would be glad again.
