“Ah, child,” he exclaimed penitently, “such love! How 355 could I dare to hope ever to claim it! How can you say that you love me?”
“Why, Padre, I love the real ‘you,’ the ‘you’ that is going to be brought out, and that will become more and more clear, until at last it stands as the perfect reflection of God. Haven’t I told you that, time and time again?”
“Yes, child. You love the ideal. But––to live with me––to be my––”
“Well, Padre, if we were not still human we would not be thinking that we were on earth. We have got to work out of this human way of thinking and living. And it has seemed to me that you and I could work out of it so much better together, you helping me, manifesting God’s protection and care, and I helping you, as you say I can and do. And how can we live together and work together unless we marry? Ages make no difference! And time is only a human concept.”
He would not try to explain her reasoning, her contempt for convention. It would be gratuitous. As for him, women had never constituted a temptation. He knew that he loved this simple, ingenuous girl with a tenderness of passion that was wholly free from the dross of mesmerism. With that he remained content.
“Padre, if you think you must stay here for a little while, to work out your problem, why, I shall just know that evil can not separate us. I don’t like to even seem to go away without you. But––it will be only seeming, after all, won’t it? God’s children can not really be separated––never!”
She was still paying faithful tribute to her vision of the spiritual universe. And how her words comforted him! How like a benison they flowed over his drooping spirits!
“And now, Padre dear,” she said, rising from the bench,––“we have done all we could––left everything with God––haven’t we? I must go now, for madre Maria told me to come back soon. She needs me.”
“Don’t––no, not yet! Wait––Carmen! Sing for me––just once more! Sing again the sweet melody that I heard when I awoke from the fever that day long ago!”
He drew her unresisting to his side. Nestling close against him, her head resting on his shoulder and her hand in his, she sang again the song that had seemed to lift him that distant day far, far above the pitiful longings and strivings of poor humanity, even unto the gates of the city of eternal harmony.