"Yes ... yes," murmured the invalid.
"Repeat the creed with me!" said the confessor, assuming a more solemn tone: "I believe in God the Father Almighty ... maker of heaven ... and earth...."
Doña Gertrudis repeated the priest's words clumsily, and as though she were not heeding what she did. She looked at the ceiling with strange persistence, while the features of her countenance were rapidly changing; a purple circle was drawn around her eyes, and her nostrils became strangely pinched. When the priest was done she again began to address Maria.
"The truth ... is ... that I have ... no hat ... fit to make the journey ... to Lourdes in.... Those that I ... have ... are ... very old-fashioned.... Do me ... the favor ... to write to Luisa ... and have her ... send me one ... in the newest style.... You also ... need a dress.... Attend to it, my daughter ... attend to it."
"Mamma, leave the vanities of the world.... Think on God.... Consider that you are going to appear very soon in his presence."
"No ... no.... I am not dying."
"Ay, mamma, by the Holy Virgin, I beg you to feel that you are going to die.... Think on your salvation!"
"I am thinking about it ... yes ... I am thinking about it," said the invalid mechanically.
The priest began to read from a book the Commendation of the Soul in Latin. All knelt. Then the dying woman, raising her head a little, asked:—
"Why are you all kneeling?"