So noble a Lord
None serves in vain;
For the pay of my love
Is my love’s sweet pain.
In the place of caresses
Thou givest me woes;
I kiss Thy hands,
When I feel their blows.
For in Thy chastening,
Is joy and peace;
O Master and Lord!
Let thy blows not cease.
I die with longing
Thy face to see
And sweet is the anguish
Of death to me.
For, because Thou lovest me,
Lover of mine!
Death can but make me
Utterly Thine!
The doctor was the first to speak after the sweet triumph of the notes had died away. “Many a soul I have seen pass whispering those verses,” he said; “men and women, and little children.”
“The good Marcela in heaven has that for her joy,” answered Luis.
Lopez rose while the holy influence still lingered. He kissed the hands of every one, and held the doctor’s in his own until they reached the threshold. A more than usual farewell took place there, though there were only a few whispered words.
“Farewell, Lopez! I can trust you?”
“Unto death.”
“If we never meet again?”
“Still it will be FAREWELL. Thou art in God’s care.”
Very slowly the doctor sauntered back to the parlor, like a man who has a heavy duty to, do and hardly knows how to begin it. “But I will tell Maria first,” he whispered; and then he opened the door, and saw the Senora bidding her children good-night.
“What a happy time we have had!” she was saying. “I shall never forget it. Indeed, my dears, you see how satisfactory it is to be religious. When we talk of the saints and angels, they come round us to listen to what we say; accordingly, we are full of peace and pleasure. I know that because I heard Fray—I heard a very good man say so.”