“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Not yet. I think I’m afraid. Make me not afraid.”
He rose and lit the two candles on the altar. He took down the crucifix from the wall and stood it against the foot-rail of the bed.
She sighed. That was not what she had wanted.
“You will not be afraid now,” he said.
“I’m not afraid of the hereafter. I suppose you get used to it. Only it may be terrible just at first.”
“Our first state will depend very much on what we are thinking of at our last hour.”
“There’ll be my—confession,” she said.
“And after it you will receive the Sacrament. Then you will have your mind fixed firmly upon God and your Redeemer.... Do you feel able to make your confession now, Sister? Everything is ready.”
Her mind went back over her past and found Oscar Wade there. She wondered: Should she confess to him about Oscar Wade? One moment she thought it was possible; the next she knew that she couldn’t. She could not. It wasn’t necessary. For twenty years he had not been part of her life. No. She wouldn’t confess about Oscar Wade. She had been guilty of other sins.