The Unknown Sea

by Clemence Housman

'Say that He made you if so you please: I speak for myself. Pass on now. Who is the Son?'

'Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord, who suffered and died to save us from our sins.'

'Suffered and died!' she exclaimed, and then added, 'I have no sins.'

'Ah, you have!' said Christian, aghast.

'You may have, may be, but not I. Pass on. Who is the other one?'

'The Holy Ghost the Comforter.'

'Whose comforter? Theirs? yours? not mine—I need no comfort.'

When he said, 'O poor, lost soul, God have mercy!' she rose to passion.

'You shall not say so; I will not endure it. And why should you look at me so? and why should you speak it low? Am I to be pitied—and pitied of you, who but for my pity would by now be a shredded and decayed patch sunk deep?'

'My body.'