“Do get well: I am sure there is nothing serious in the matter; the warm weather, and the genial climate of Campania, will soon restore you. We will sit again together by the spring, and talk over better things than philosophy.”
Miriam shook her head, not mournfully, but cheerfully, as she replied:
“Do not flatter yourself, dearest; God has spared me till I should see this happy day. But His hand is on me now for death, as it has been hitherto for life; and I hail it with joy. I know too well the number of my days.”
“Oh! let it not be so soon!” sobbed out Fabiola.
“Not while you have on your white garment, dear sister,” answered Miriam. “I know you would wish to mourn for me; but I would not rob you of one hour of your mystic whiteness.”
Dionysius came, and saw a great change in his patient, whom he had not visited for some time. It was as he had feared it might be. The insidious point of the dagger had curled round the bone, and injured the pleura; and phthisis
Administering the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, in the Early Ages of the Church.