rds? I was a priest; I had charge of
thy soul; the sweet offices of a pure love were lawful; words of love
imprudent at the least. But now the good fight is won, ah me! Oh my
love, if thou hast lived doubting of thy Gerard's heart, die not so; for
never was woman loved so tenderly as thou this ten years past."

"Calm thyself, dear one," said the dying woman, with a heavenly smile.
"I know it; only being but a woman, I could not die happy till I had
heard thee say so. Ah! I have pined ten years for those sweet words.
Hast said them, and this is the happiest hour of my life. I had to die
to get them; well, I grudge not the price."

From this moment a gentle complacency rested on her fading features. But
she did not speak.

Then Gerard, who had loved her soul so many years, feared lest she
should expire with a mind too fixed on earthly affection.

"Oh my daughter," he cried, "my dear daughter, if indeed thou lovest me
as I love thee, give me not the pain of seeing thee die with thy pious
soul fixed on mortal things.

"Dearest lamb of all my fold, for whose soul I must answer, oh think not
now of mortal love, but of His who died for thee on the tree. Oh, let
thy last look be heavenwards, thy last word a word of prayer."

She turned a look of gratitude and obedience on him. "What saint?"
she murmured: meaning doubtless, "what saint should she invoke as an
intercessor."

"He to whom the saints themselves do pray."

She turned on him one more sweet look of love and submission, and put
her pretty hands together in a prayer like a child.

"Jesu!"

This blessed word was her last. She lay with her eyes heavenwards, and
her hands put together.

Gerard prayed fervently for her passing spirit. And when he had prayed a
long time with his head averted, not to see her last breath, all seemed
unnaturally still. He turned his head fearfully. It was so.

She was gone.

Nothing left him now but the earthly shell of as constant, pure, and
loving a spirit as eve' adorned the earth.

(1) Let me not be understood to apply this to the bare
outline of the relation. Many bishops and priests, and not a
few popes, had wives and children as laymen; and entering
orders were parted from the wives and not from the children.
But in the case before the reader are the additional
features of a strong surviving attachment on both sides, and
of neighbourhood, besides that here the man had been led
int