“Simply, madame, because this is earth, and not heaven. In the next life all masks must be dropped. What will the hypocrite and the impostor do then? Then the loving will find the loving, and the pure will find the pure. Then our bodies will be fair or ugly, black or white, according to our characters.”
“I believe it!” exclaimed the invalid. “Yes, there is an infinite compassion over all. God lives, and the soul does not die, and the mistakes, the infelicities, the shortcomings of this life shall be as fuel to kindle our aspirations and illumine our path in another stage of being.”
Here a clamorous newsboy stopped on the other side of the way to sell a gentleman an Extra.
“What is that boy crying?” asked the invalid.
“A great steamboat accident on the Mississippi,” replied Toussaint.
CHAPTER XV.
WHO SHALL BE HEIR?
“I care not, Fortune, what you me deny,
You cannot rob me of free Nature’s grace;
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Through which Aurora shows her brightening face.”