"Very proper, dear. It is not, I believe, quite safe to die without taking the sacrament. I should do that the first thing if I were a-dying."
"Exactly so, ma'. After Amelia had taken it, and when all thought she had made her peace with God, and was quite resigned to die, she sent for Mr. Cole again, and told him that what he had done was of no use, and that she dreaded dying just as much after taking the sacrament and absolution, as she did before she took it. It was this that so much affected him. He had just left her when we met him."
"But why should he care about it, if he did what the church prescribes to be done? He did his duty, and that ought to have satisfied him."
"But, he says, it is such an indirect impeachment of his competency to perform his clerical functions."
"I have no doubt, if the real state of the case were known, that Mrs. Stevens has been with her, and undone what Mr. Cole did. She is always prowling about amongst the sick and the dying, disquieting their minds after the clergy have helped them to make their peace with God."
"No, ma', she had not seen Mrs. Stevens. Her disquietude of soul came of itself."
"How do you know that?"
"I have just seen her, and she told me so. She said, and she spoke emphatically when she said it, 'To give the sacrament and absolution to fit a person for dying, as a sort of a passport to heaven, is a great delusion.'"
"Depend on it, dear, that her fever has affected her brain. She must be in a state of delirium."
"No, ma', she is quite herself—as calm and as collected as when in perfect health. And she talks now so sweetly about Jesus Christ, and about his love for sinners, and about coming to him to be saved, that she really made me weep, though I could not comprehend her meaning. You would not know her if you were to hear her speak now, so different to her former talk. She talks now like a saint just going into heaven. It is quite wonderful. I can't make it out."