When I offered to remove the medicines, the devoted daughter was not willing.
"Touch not the table yet, kind Señora," she pleaded. "Wait until the dear body has been taken away; then will I find courage to disturb the tumblers that the dear hands once held."
As the Doña Maria spoke, Mariposilla entered the room, bearing a little cross of white roses. She laid it timidly upon the breast of her grandmother; then, frightened and hysterical, she fled from the bed.
"Poor child," said the Doña Maria, "she fears death greatly. She thinks only of the fire that must at first purify the soul, not of the joys of eternity.
"Go now, Señora, retire at once for the night. You are weary and in need of rest.
"I care not for company. I will remain alone with my mother and our blessed Lady. I desire to entreat that the sufferings of the dear one may be short.
"Surely the dear Lord will have mercy upon the aged one who has already endured so much upon earth."
"Good Doña Maria," I plead, "you will surely be ill if you kneel all night in prayer. To-morrow will be a sad, hard day, and without rest you will be unfit for its strain."
"No, Señora," she replied firmly; "I shall not be ill. After midnight I shall sleep; until then I shall pray."