“Do love,” he replied, “and if the Confessor is reasonable with you, I will go myself to-morrow, or send for him to wait on me at the hotel.”
I left him smoking a cigar
, and about an hour-and-a-half afterwards entered the church, where I was immediately accosted by an elderly priest. “
If the English lady wishes to confess, the Father Francisco
in yonder box is most suitable for Madame.
He knows the English ways so well, and was consecrated in England.”
[55]
]I approached the box, which was in a very secluded corner of the sacred building, and kneeling on a hassock, enquired, in a low voice, “If the Rev. Father Francisco was ready to hear my confession?”
“Yes, my daughter, and I pray God you may have nothing but venial sins to confess,” was the reply of my unseen Confessor.
In my innocence I related every act of our married life; how excited we were in our love games, and the various attitudes we used to heighten our enjoyment.
“Awfully sensual, my daughter. Your Confessor previous to marriage must have admonished you as to the use of these unnatural postures in following the dictates of nature in your endeavours to obey the first commandment, ‘to increase and multiply.’ The holy rites of matrimony ought not to be perverted by lascivious ideas and filthy sacrifices to lust. It is a most serious thing my daughter, but before I consider what penance to exact for such sins, tell me, as [56] ]you value the intercession of our Holy Mother, have you always been faithful to your husband? If only by a look or a gesture, it