“Brought up without very much religion, perhaps,” acquiesced Mrs. Mulholland cheerfully. “Well, well, your dear little sister will do wonders for you. A vocation in a family is a very great grace, and certainly she had done all our Lord wanted of her on earth, and that’s why He took her to Himself in Heaven.”
The Heaven, beautiful, material, and yet fadeless and endless, presented thus to her brought a strange weary comfort to Rosamund’s mind.
“We shall be together again, and it will be just like before she went away—only better,” she repeated, like a child.
“Yes—much, much better. Nothing to end it, and then God’s holy presence, you know. It will all be merged in that.”
“And the people we’ve loved on earth?” urged Rosamund, as though she needed reassurance from her companion’s robust certainties.
“Yes, yes, all of them. We may have to wait a little while for some, you know, because they’ve purgatory to go through—and so have we for the matter of that—but Sister Frances is safe enough, my dear. Nuns have their purgatory on earth, is what I always say. And a little pure soul like that—why, she’s waiting up there now, for you, I expect. I shall get there before you, my dear, please God, and you may be quite sure I shall give you better prayers there than I can here.”
“Do you want to die, Mrs. Mulholland?”
“Only when God pleases, my dear. A year or two more or less won’t make very much difference, except that it gives one more time to try and get ready. But of course I look forward to getting to Heaven—naturally I do.”
“And do you think you will find the people you love there?”
“Yes, dear, yes,” Mrs. Mulholland patiently reiterated. “I often think how very strange it will be to meet Michael again—that’s my husband, who died more than forty years ago, after we’d been married five years. A very bad husband he was to me—I married a non-practising Catholic, my dear, and a terrible mistake it was, too—but thank God he made a very good confession at the last, and died in a state of grace. But of course he must be very much changed, since he was just a bad man when I knew him—neither more nor less—except for that little while at the end. But with all the prayers and the Masses that have been offered, and God’s good mercy, I can’t help hoping that poor Michael is a blessed spirit in Heaven by this time.”