Margery's decision to wear the hair-shirt is based on the guilt of her sins. Like many female mystics of her time, the epiphany experience which transformed her life came at a point in her life where she was both a wife and mother. For Margery, the act of relinquishing her virginity to her husband was a sin for which she did not feel forgiven, even though Christ repeatedly forgave her from her sins. In the previous passage, she wore the hair-shirt not only to force herself to suffer for her sins, but perhaps also as a means to deter her husband from initiating sexual encounters. She kept it secret even from her husband. In the previous passage, it is possible that Margery used the hair-shirt as a sort of talisman to ward off such encounters from her husband. Perhaps Margery felt that wearing the hair-shirt would not only force her to suffer for Christ, but also that christ, in seeing her suffering, might grant her wishes of celibacy by influencing her husband in some manner. Thus, her hair-shirt is both a means of penance and miracles, of sorts.