Topándy was moved. He said:
"Repeat after me."
And he said to her the Lord's Prayer.
The girl devoutly and between gasps repeated it after him.
How beautiful it is! What great words those are!
First she repeated it after him, then again said it over, sentence by sentence, asking "what does this or that phrase mean?" "Why do we say 'our Father?' What is meant by 'Thy Kingdom?' Will he forgive us our trespasses, if we forgive them that trespass against us? Will he deliver us from every evil? What power there is in that 'Amen!'"—Then a third time she repeated it alone before Topándy, without a single omission.
"Now I feel easier," she said, her face beaming with happiness.
The atheist turned aside and wept.
The shutters let in the rays of the sun through the holes the bullets had made.
"Is that sunset?" whispered the girl.