"And now," continued Mrs. Huxam, "you—you—her youngest child—have the blessed power to help your mother; and God's waiting and listening up in Heaven, to see if you will help her."
"I don't understand that."
"You will in a minute. You were told—not by your dear mother, Auna, but by the Evil One, who's often allowed to speak through our human lips, that she wanted to go back to Red House and couldn't; and she told you to tell your father that."
"So she did; and so I shall," answered Auna firmly.
"So you must not; that's why I was sent to overhear the fatal words and save you from repeating them to your father."
"I promised to, because mother thought it would make father happier; and so it will, granny; oh, it will do that when he knows."
"You promised, because you knew not why you promised, or who you promised. But you are not going to keep your promise, because to keep it would be threatening new danger to your mother's soul. A soul's never safe till it's out of the body, Auna. Always remember that. Many and many a soul has been lost on a death-bed, where the devil's grabbed them at the last moment."
"How would it hurt dear mother's soul to know that father was a little happier, granny?"
"It hurts your mother's soul to think on your father at all. I'm not your father's judge, and nothing that your mother, or anybody else, can do will alter the wages of such sins as his. And the way you act about your father is a very great sorrow to all of us; for you've been taught to know far better. But what matters now is that for your mother's sake—your dying mother's sake, Auna—he must not know what she said. Your mother's soul it may mean, for God wills that a soul shall hang on a thread above the bottomless pit sometimes; and such a little thing as a child's hand may push it down. Therefore the man must never know that your mother wanted to see him."
"Why not?" asked Auna. "How will it be bad for dear mother's soul that she's made poor father a little bit happier? Hasn't he had enough to bear?"